Farmers and agents are being urged to register online to get early confirmation of the number and value of their SPS 2010 Entitlements. The information will be published online before it arrives in the post.

The Rural Payments Agency will publish SPS 2010 Entitlements Statements and guidance on its electronic application service SPS Online, by 8 December 2010. Paper copies and guidance will be posted from mid December.   

Not everyone will be able to view their 2010 Entitlements Statements online by 8 December, as in a small number of cases work is still ongoing. Once this work on entitlements is completed, the statements will be both available online and posted out.

Stephen Briggs, RPA’s Customer Director, said: “We would urge all farmers to use the online services so they can see their SPS 2010 Entitlements Statement ahead of time. Farmers can go online to do this even if they applied using a paper form this year.

“Improvements in RPA’s electronic services are part of our ongoing commitment to manage our processes efficiently and effectively. Doing this means we can provide a better service to our farmers and help reduce the cost of processing SPS applications.”  

RPA launched this new service “view statements”  earlier this year to add to the “make a claim” service which allows all SPS claimants to apply for their 2011 scheme online next year.

Users can access SPS Online via the ‘RPA Online’ link on the Whole Farm Approach website: www.wholefarm.defra.gov.uk/.  To register, users need a PIN number provided by RPA and a Government Gateway login.  To get a new PIN or more information visit the RPA website (www.rpa.gov.uk/spsonline) or call the RPA Customer Service Centre on 0845 603 7777.