BPS Online System Abandoned

The RPA has announced the on-line Rural Payments system will not be used for this year’s BPS applications.  Apart from registering, Farmers and Agents will not be asked to enter any further data online now.  It is stated that data that has already been entered onto the system has been saved and will be used.  This announcement comes soon after DEFRA agreed to extend the deadline for submissions by a month to the 15^th June.

A key point is that paper forms are not an alternative to online this year – there will be no electronic submission in 2015.  As from Monday 23^rd March blank BP5 forms and RLE1 forms will be available to download from the RPA website.  (The BP5 is the replacement for the SP5.)  It is hoped that pre-populated forms will be available in April.  Those with claims that contain a large number of fields may wish to wait for these.  Any data already entered onto the Rural Payments system should be included on this pre-population – but we will see. 

Farm businesses with little change to their land year-on-year, and who do not need to do Greening, will be ‘fast-tracked’ by the RPA.   The RPA has identified approximately 39,000 farmers in this category and they will receive an email in April that summarises the land and entitlement information already held, together with simple instructions on completing their claim by email.  They will not need to complete a BP5 form.  Again, those with clients whose applications may fall into this simple category may well be best to wait, rather than rush to download and fill out BP5 forms. 

For those submitting a BP5 form, maps will have to be submitted alongside in many cases to illustrate field splits, ineligible features etc.  All mapping must be done on paper RLR maps and any farmer who has not received an up-to-date map of their land from the RPA in the last six months will be sent one during April.  All agents should have received maps of their clients’ land from the RPA by the end of next week. 

The RLE1 forms should be used in the same way as it was under the SPS i.e. to notify ineligible features, splits, mergers, land transfers and entitlement transfers.  However with regards to the latter, it is not clear whether there still needs to be a six week notification period for entitlement transfers and if so will it be extended similar to the submission deadline.  We will provide further detail when it is available.  It is also not clear how or when claimants will be informed of their entitlement holdings.

Drop in Centres (DIC) will return, with the 50 Digital Support Centres now transforming into DICs.  These will provide additional support to applicants, it will also be possible to submit claims at any of these centres.  The RPA has also said that those dealing with the most complex cases will be offered additional support.  The RPA has also not ruled out giving Agents and others direct access to the claims computer system.  Data is held and claims are actually processed by a computer system called SITI, built by an Italian company Abaco.  This is widely used around Europe.  The ‘Rural Payments’ system is just an interface between claimants and SITI – it is the linkages between the two systems that was causing many of the problems.  The RPA may allow large claimants direct access to SITI (another new acronym to learn), but more detail is awaited.

It does seem rather a shock that after all this time and effort, the service is not in a state to be used at all.  But apparently the view was taken that no guarantee of the systems stability over the next couple of months could be made.  The RPA has said staff there will be inputting submitted forms, but they have enough resources and payments should not be delayed.   This is obviously a very fast evolving situation and we will try and keep readers as up-to-date as possible.  Note claimants must still be registered on the new Rural Payments system.