BPS Payments – Scotland, Wales and NI

The Scottish Government has announced that they are ‘on track’ with payments. The first payments will be made during December with about 25% of farmers being paid before Christmas. The first installment will be at least 70% of the total payment with the second installment expected in April. All claimants should receive their first installment by the end of March.

Partial payments began arriving at the start of December for Welsh farmers, with half of claimants expected to receive their 70-80% of their BPS in the first week.  However, there have been a number of incidences of over-declaration penalties.  These issues predominately centre around the mapping of ineligible features where Rural Payments Wales (RPW) has determined a different area than that entered by the claimant.  RPW will review cases where it is believed that a reasonable effort was made by the claimant.  In these cases the claimant/agent should contact RPW.

In Northern Ireland, DARD, has confirmed that BPS began on the 1^st December, the aim is to have made 95% of payments by the end of December.