Cross-compliance Changes

There will be some changes to the English cross-compliance rules when the new BPS starts in 2015.  Among these will be the scrapping of the written Soil Protection Review.  Although the new system is billed as a simplification, most of the current SPS rules will continue into the BPS.

Some of the amendments are due to changes in EU legislation.  Others are a result of DEFRA’s drive to simplify ‘red-tape’.  The revisions and the justification for them are outlined in the following document – https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/318606/cross-compliance-evidence-summary.pdf.  In summary they are;

• removal of the requirement for farmers to control injurious weeds (thistles, docks, ragwort)
• removal of the entire GAEC rule relating to land not in agricultural production
• an extension of the end of the no-cutting period for hedges from 31^st July to 31^st August
• removal of the requirement to fill out a Soil Protection Review each year (although there will still be a requirement to follow minimum standards)
• ‘High Importance Nationally Important Monuments’ (HINIMs) are not ‘scheduled monuments’ and are currently unprotected under cross-compliance.  Those found on grassland will have to be retained as a condition of cross-compliance
• the inclusion of earth and stone banks under the rules for protecting hedges and stone walls
• removal of the exemption allowing stone from walls to be used to repair footpaths