More than 71,000 farmers have now received their 2017 payments.

Payments have been made to just under 84% of eligible claimants, worth some £1.3bn in total so far.

image expired

More payments will be released in the next few days and during next week.

Emails and letters have been issued this week to those who will or who may not be paid for BPS 2017 in December. The NFU is continuing to push for bridging payments to give a better degree of financial certainty at this time.

With the RPA issuing Claim Statements much earlier for BPS 2017 than in previous years, it is important that you understand how your payment has been calculated and raise any concerns with the RPA using its Payment Query Form.

Looking at online mapping and entitlement details, a copy of the claim submitted will help to pin point any issues. To help, the NFU has put together a briefing document for members covering BPS 2017 payments.

The Helpline 03000 200 3010 will be manned over the Christmas period as below:

Inspections - changes to how RPA checks existing rules

The way RPA checks the following rules is changing from 1 January 2018. These are not new rules but RPA must check them differently. Therefore, remember that for:

• GAEC 5: Minimising soil erosion - you must make sure you have put in place suitable practical measures to limit soil and bankside erosion, and can show this during any inspection.
• SMR 7: Cattle identification and registration, and SMR8: Sheep and goat identification - you must make sure that all your cattle and sheep are correctly identified and that lost and damaged ear tags are replaced within the deadlines. You must also make sure that any cattle notifications you make to BCMS are made within the deadlines.

You can read the rules about suitable practical measures, or animal identification and registration and deadlines in the The guide to cross compliance in England 2018 (PDF, 1.65MB, 84 pages).