Penalties for over-declaring land in Basic Payment Scheme applications in NI are to be cut by 50%.

It applies to claims that are made for the likes of ineligible land, duplicate fields which are being claimed by another farm business, or land where the claimant does not meet active farmer requirements.

The change applies to claims made for the 2020 scheme year onwards, but does not apply to retrospective penalties for over-declarations in previous years.

Under the existing regime, small over declarations worth up to 3% of the total farm area, or two hectares, have claims reduced to the area determined by DAERA and no extra penalties apply.

Over-declarations above this limit typically bring about an additional penalty that equates to 1.5 times the Basic Payment for the over declared area.

Farmers who over-declared in previous years, or over claimed again the following year, had full penalties applied for all years

DAERA has described the new rule change as a simplification of the so-called yellow card penalty which was introduced by the European Commission in 2016.

This allowed farmers who had over-claimed by less than 10% of the total farm area to have penalties reduced by 50%.

However, the yellow card only applied if it was a one-off over declaration. Farmers who over-declared in previous years, or over claimed again the following year, had full penalties applied for all years.

The new penalty regime from DAERA effectively scraps the one-off clause in the yellow card penalty.

A department spokesperson told the Irish Farmers Journal that it removes conditions relating to the first offence, as well as the requirement to pay full fines for all years if an over-declaration occurs the following year.

“Any farm business which over declares their land area by no more than 10% in any year from 2020 onwards will have their penalty reduced by 50%,” the spokesperson confirmed.