This Week's Top News Bites
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Environmental Stewardship: HLS Extensions
The TFA, along with other industry organisations, have been requesting that HLS extensions are granted to address the gap of agreements between the historic Environmental Stewardship schemes and the current Countryside Stewardship scheme.
DEFRA are now in the final stages of negotiating details of the extension with the EU Commission. However, eligible agreement holders should have already been approached by their local Natural England project officer.
Currently the extension is only available for 2019 expiring agreements. However, the EU Commission have this week announced that agreements will only be offered on a yearly basis, rather than the four year extension proposed by DEFRA. DEFRA have confirmed to the TFA that they will challenge the decision. However, due to the limited window for an agreement to be reached, they may be forced to accept the EU Commission amendment or risk losing the extension offer all together.
There are a number of limiting factors that eligible agreement holders will need to take into consideration before signing the extension offer, including the payment recovery process. However, for those that wish to proceed we encourage you to return the Expression of Interest form as soon as possible.
Today is Your Last Chance to Register
Calling all Rural Payment Wales BPS claimants: those whose BPS claims have not yet been processed will have received a message from RPW today notifying you of this.
Therefore we recommend you register for a loan payment by 30 November to ensure a payment in December 2018. To register click here.
The House of Commons EFRA Committee Reports on the Agriculture Bill
The House of Commons Environment Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee has issued a report following its short scrutiny Inquiry into the Agriculture Bill.
The report picks up many of the points raised in evidence by the TFA and can be read by clicking here.
Lack Lustre Inheritance Tax Report from the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS)
Despite high hopes that we would see some significant recommendations coming out of the OTS report on inheritance tax, sadly it has failed to match expectations. However, we are told that this is just the initial report and a second report, coming at some point in the early part of next year, will have a greater focus on policy. Click here to read the initial report.
Cross Compliance 2019
There are no confirmed policy changes to the Cross Compliance rules for 2019. However, please bear in mind that for land that was entered in an NVZ for the first time in 2017, transitional arrangements have been in place to not meet some of the NVZ rules.
These arrangements come to an end in July 2019, when the requirement to meet all the NVZ rules starts on 31 July 2019. For more information please refer to the 2018 Cross Compliance Guide here.
HSE New Guide to Make Farms a Safer Environment
The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) has published an easy to use guide called ‘What a Good Farm Looks Like’ to help farmers understand and control the common risks to health and safety on farm. This covers everything from vehicles and machines to the use of pesticides.
In the event that a HSE inspector visits a farm, they will look at the topics covered in the guide and check that the risks are being controlled. Therefore, we urge TFA members to start to make farms a safer place today by printing off the guide, and making sure that everyone on the farm has their own copy and is following the guidance. A copy of the guidance can be found here.
