The Hill Farm Allowance Regulations 2008

Title, commencement and application

1.  These Regulations—

(a) may be cited as the Hill Farm Allowance Regulations 2008;

(b) come into force on 7th February 2008;

(c) apply only in relation to holdings situated wholly or partly in England.

Interpretation

2.  In these Regulations—

“agriculture” includes horticulture, fruit growing, seed growing, dairy farming and livestock breeding and keeping, the use of land as grazing land, meadow land, osier land, market gardens and nursery grounds, and the use of land for woodlands where that use is ancillary to the use of land for other agricultural purposes;

“breeding cow” means a suckler cow or a heifer;

“claim” means a claim for hill farm allowance made in a single payment scheme application;

“claimant” means a person who has made a claim;

“claimed forage area” means land included as forage land in a single payment scheme application or related less favoured area allowance application;

“Commission Regulation 796/2004” means Commission Regulation (EC) No 796/2004 laying down detailed rules for the implementation of cross-compliance, modulation and the integrated administration and control system provided for in Council Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 establishing common rules for direct support schemes under the common agricultural policy and establishing certain support schemes for farmers(1);

“Commission Regulation 1973/2004” means Commission Regulation (EC) No 1973/2004 laying down detailed rules for the application of Council Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 as regards the support schemes provided for in Titles IV and IVa of that Regulation and the use of land set aside for the production of raw materials(2);

“common land” means land registered as common land with grazing rights under the Commons Registration Act 1965(3);

“Council Regulation 1257/1999” means Council Regulation (EC) No 1257/1999 on support for rural development from the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF) and amending and repealing certain Regulations(4);

“Council Regulation 1698/2005” means Council Regulation (EC) No 1698/2005 on support for rural development by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD)(5);

“Council Regulation 1782/2003” means Council Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 establishing common rules for direct support schemes under the common agricultural policy and establishing certain support schemes for farmers and amending certain Regulations(6);

“disadvantaged land” (except in the expression “severely disadvantaged land”) means any area of land shown coloured blue on the England LFA maps;

“eligible forage area” means such part of the qualifying forage area that is severely disadvantaged land;

“the England LFA maps” means the three volumes of maps numbered 1 to 3, each volume being marked “Volume of maps of less-favoured farming areas in England”, dated 20th May 1991, signed and sealed by the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food;

“ewe” means a female sheep which was at least one year old on 1st January 2008, or had lambed by that date;

“forage area” has the same meaning as in Article 131(2)(b) of Council Regulation 1782/2003;

“heifer” means a female bovine animal aged 8 months or over which has not yet calved;

“hill farm allowance” means the compensatory allowance payable in accordance with these Regulations, Article 36(a)(ii) of Council Regulation 1698/2005 and Chapter V of Title II of Council Regulation 1257/1999;

“holding” has the same meaning as in Article 2(b) of Council Regulation 1782/2003;

“individual reference quantity of milk” has the same meaning as in Article 117(2) of Commission Regulation 1973/2004;

“less favoured area” means any area of land shown coloured blue or pink on the England LFA maps;

“livestock unit” means a unit of measurement of livestock numbers, and each of the following constitutes a single livestock unit—

(a)

one suckler cow;

(b)

one heifer aged 24 months or over;

(c)

1.67 heifers under the age of 24 months; and

(d)

6.67 ewes;

“moorland” means all the land shown coloured pink in the three volumes of maps entitled “Moorland Map of England 2007”, each volume being marked with the number of the volume, dated 7th October 2007, signed on behalf of the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs;

“notional livestock density” means the number of livestock units per hectare of the claimant’s disadvantaged land and severely disadvantaged land, calculated in accordance with Schedule 1;

“other competent authority” means the Scottish Ministers, the Welsh Ministers or, in Northern Ireland, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development;

“permanent pasture” means non-rotational land used for grass production (sown or natural) on a permanent basis (five years or longer) excluding land set aside under Article 6 of Council Regulation (EC) No 1251/1999 establishing a support system for producers of certain arable crops(7) and Article 54 of Council Regulation 1782/2003;

“qualifying forage area” means the claimed forage area or, where regulation 6 applies, such part of that area as remains following deductions made to it in accordance with that regulation;

“related less favoured area allowance” means a compensatory allowance payable in relation to land situated in Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales in accordance with Article 36(a)(i) or (ii) of Council Regulation 1698/2005 or Chapter V of Title II of Council Regulation 1257/1999;

“relevant animals” means, in relation to a claimant, the breeding cows and ewes determined as relevant animals in accordance with Schedule 5;

“relevant forage area” means any claimed forage area that is disadvantaged land or severely disadvantaged land;

“severely disadvantaged land” means any area of land shown coloured pink on the England LFA maps;

“single payment scheme” means the support scheme established under Title III of Council Regulation 1782/2003;

“single payment scheme application” means an application to the single payment scheme submitted in 2007 in accordance with Article 34 of Council Regulation 1782/2003 and Title II of Part II of Commission Regulation 796/2004;

“suckler cow” has the same meaning as in Article 122(d) of Council Regulation 1782/2003.

Payment of hill farm allowance

3.—(1) The Secretary of State must pay hill farm allowance for 2008 to a claimant who is eligible under regulation 4.

(2) The Secretary of State must only pay such allowance in respect of eligible forage area that does not exceed 700 hectares.

Eligibility for hill farm allowance

4.—(1) A claimant who satisfies the conditions in paragraph (2) is eligible for hill farm allowance.

(2) The conditions are that—

(a) the claim relates to at least—

(i) ten hectares of severely disadvantaged land in England, or

(ii) one hectare of severely disadvantaged land in England, where the claimant is eligible for a related less favoured area allowance in another part of the United Kingdom;

(b) the land referred to in sub-paragraph (a)—

(i) was available to be grazed or have a forage crop taken from it for a continuous period of seven months, starting on any date from 1st January 2007 to 31st March 2007 inclusive, and

(ii) during that seven-month period, was available to the claimant to be grazed or have a forage crop taken from it for a period, or periods in total, of at least four months; and

(c) the notional livestock density is not less than 0.15 (unless paragraph (5) applies).

(3) But a claimant who is in breach of the agricultural undertaking is not eligible for hill farm allowance, unless the Secretary of State considers it reasonable in all the circumstances that the breach should not affect the claimant’s eligibility.

(4) For the purposes of paragraph (3), a claimant who ceases to farm does not breach that undertaking provided that at least ten hectares of the land in respect of which the undertaking was given continue to be used for the purposes of agriculture.

(5) The Secretary of State may determine that a notional livestock density of less than 0.15 is sufficient given the circumstances of any particular case or group of cases, including the results or likely results of disease on notional livestock density.

(6) A claimant must provide such information as the Secretary of State reasonably requires to enable such a determination to be made.

(7) The Secretary of State must notify the claimant of any such determination in writing or, where the determination is made in relation to more than one case, publish that determination in such way as the Secretary of State thinks fit.

(8) For the purposes of paragraph (2)(b), land is available to be used for grazing or to have a forage crop taken from it if it is not so available only as a result of an agri-environment agreement.

(9) In this regulation, “agri-environment agreement” means—

(a) an agreement made as part of a scheme made under Article 39 of Council Regulation 1698/2005, or

(b) such other agreement involving environmental commitments as the Secretary of State thinks fit.

(10) In paragraph (3), the “agricultural undertaking” means the undertaking given in the claimant’s claim to pursue farming activity in a less favoured area for at least five years from the date of the first payment to that person made under these Regulations or any of the Hill Farm Allowance Regulations 2003 to 2007(8).

(11) This regulation and regulation 5 are subject to Article 51 of Council Regulation 1698/2005 (reduction or cancellation of payments).

Amount of payment

5.—(1) The Secretary of State must pay hill farm allowance at the rates specified in this regulation.

(2) For the qualifying forage area of land specified in column 1 of the table in Schedule 2, the rate payable per hectare is that specified in—

(a) column 2 of that table for the first 350 hectares, and

(b) column 3 for the next 350 hectares.

(3) The amount of any payment must be increased by 5% if either condition A or condition B is met, and by 10% if both those conditions are met.

(4) Condition A is that at least one hectare or 5% (whichever is the smaller) of the claimant’s severely disadvantaged land—

(a) is planted with arable crops in respect of which the claimant is not receiving any other financial support, and

(b) was not converted from permanent pasture in or after 2002.

(5) Condition B is that at least one hectare or 5% (whichever is the smaller) of the claimant’s severely disadvantaged land—

(a) is planted with woodland in respect of which the claimant is not receiving any other financial support, and

(b) was not converted from permanent pasture in or after 2002.

(6) The Secretary of State may also increase the amount of any payment by up to 10% if the fund available for hill farm allowance is greater than anticipated by the Secretary of State because—

(a) the amount of eligible forage area in respect of which such allowance is payable is smaller than anticipated, or

(b) the budget allocation for the Rural Development Programme for England 2007-2013, or that part of that budget available for hill farm allowance, is or is likely to be greater than anticipated.

(7) The Secretary of State may decrease it by up to 10% if that fund is smaller than anticipated by the Secretary of State because—

(a) the amount of eligible forage area in respect of which such allowance is payable is greater than anticipated, or

(b) the budget allocation for the Rural Development Programme for England 2007-2013, or that part of that budget available for hill farm allowance, is or is likely to be smaller than anticipated.

(8) Any increase applied under paragraph (6) or decrease applied under paragraph (7) must be applied in respect of each claimant’s payment.

(9) In paragraphs (4) and (5), “other financial support” does not include financial support from the single payment scheme.

(10) The “Rural Development Programme for England 2007-2013” is the Programme for England approved by the European Commission on 7th December 2007 under Article 18(4) of Council Regulation 1698/2005.

Deductions from claimed forage area

6.  Where an individual reference quantity of milk is available to a claimant, Schedule 3 (deductions from claimed forage area) has effect.

Holdings situated partly outside England

7.  Schedule 4 (holdings situated partly outside England) has effect.

Jeff Rooker

Minister of State

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

12th January 2008