This is a subscriber-only article
Farmers who fail to meet cross compliance rules in 2021 face lower penalties than before, Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots has announced.
At present DAERA works from two penalty matrices, one of which applies when a non-compliance is found to be intentional, and the second when it is deemed a negligent breach of the rules.
For negligent breaches, the penalties range from a warning letter where it has a “very low effect” to 5% of payments when it has a “high effect”.
Our records show that the main reductions to penalties are across the matrix for intentional breaches
Intentional breaches bring more penal reductions, ranging from 15% where it has a “very low effect” and is rectifiable, to 100% of payments where the severity of the issue is deemed to be high.
The maximum 5% and 100% reductions for negligent and intentional penalties are unchanged from before.
Our records show that the main reductions to penalties are across the matrix for intentional breaches.
Review
Aside from the penalties applied, Minister Poots has also asked his officials to review wider cross compliance requirements.
“Now that we have left the European Union, I have asked my Department to look at how cross compliance can be made to work better, helping farmers to improve where needed while still protecting our environment and our food standards,” he said.
SHARING OPTIONS: