All hen harrier programme farmers must engage an adviser to walk and score their land and submit a payment claim before 31 July for payment later this year.

A field score is determined annually using the appropriate scorecard by a trained hen harrier programme adviser or a hen harrier project team member.

All qualifying lands are scored from one to 10, based on their ecosystem services value.

This score determines the number of habitat points earned in respect of that field.

No points will be allocated in respect of lands with a field score less than four. On critical sites, the project team may develop a customised scoring system.

The hen harrier project team will assess the field score on commonages. This will be done at least twice over the duration of the project.