Any penalties imposed on farms which don’t meet new Farm Sustainability Standards to be in place from 1 January 2026 will apply across all schemes, not just the new area-based Farm Sustainability Payment (FSP), a DAERA spokesperson has confirmed.

That list includes the beef carbon reduction scheme, suckler cow payment, as well as protein crops, forestry and agri-environment payments. Given the sums of money involved, especially for large beef finishers, it means a fairly low-level offence could attract a hefty penalty.

But as well as financial penalties, the department are to put in place a new system whereby farmers who breach rules will have to undergo mandatory online training. Until that training is completed, all payments will be withheld.

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“The penalty system will identify that a first breach of a standard has occurred and identify that the farm business must complete the mandatory training. The system will put a hold on payments until that has been completed,” said the DAERA spokesperson.

Landscape feature

There has also been a change to rules around what happens if a farm is found to have removed a landscape feature such as a hedgerow or stone wall, with the department now requiring “mitigation work” to be undertaken.

“A farm business must complete mitigation actions where a breach has been identified in respect of landscape feature removal, regardless of whether permission has been sought from the Department. This removes a current anomaly in cross-compliance where those who fail to seek permission were not subject to mitigation, whereas those who did seek permission, were,” said the spokesperson.