SPS Housekeeping

A couple of administration reminders as we approach the end of the year.  The Soil Protection Review (SPR) needs reviewing and updating by 31^st December.  Secondly, make sure any changes to the farmed area have been reported to the RPA in order for the Rural Land Registry (RLR) maps to be updated.  Changes such as new ponds, tracks with hard surface, buildings or boundary changes should be informed to the RPA as soon as they happen via an RLE1 form.  In practice it is often left until the annual submission of the Single Payment, but this can often lead to the wrong area being submitted and queries after the submission deadline.  If the RPA are informed of changes before Christmas, these will be calculated and pre-populated on next year’s form. 

The RPA is undertaking its own housekeeping exercise.  The new CAP IT system to be introduced in 2015 will contain a single database of ‘customers’.  The RPA is cleansing its records before it starts matching them with those held by other agencies such as Natural England.  Letters are currently going out to a number of SPS claimants to fill in gaps in the RPA’s database.  Some farmers may be contacted by telephone if the query is very simple.