(This note is not part of the Regulations)
These Regulations make provision in Scotland for the administration and enforcement of Regulation (EC) No. 1782/2003 (O.J. No. L 270, 21.10.2003, p.1; “the Council Regulation”) and Commission Regulation (EC) No. 796/2004 (O.J. No. L 141, 30.4.2004, p.18) in relation to cross-compliance under the new system of direct support subsidy schemes under the Common Agricultural Policy introduced under the Council Regulation. They come into force on 1st January 2005.
The Regulations designate the competent national authority for providing farmers under Article 3(2) of the Council Regulation with a list of the statutory management requirements specified in Annex III of the Council Regulation (“the statutory management requirements”), and the good agricultural and environmental condition that they must respect (regulation 3).
Regulation 4 and the Schedule to these Regulations define the requirements of good agricultural and environmental condition in relation to agricultural land in Scotland under Article 5(1) of the Council Regulation, based on the framework set out in Annex IV to that Regulation. A farmer must also keep land in a condition where an authorised person can gain access to the land to ascertain whether there has been a breach of these requirements.
Regulation 5 exercises a derogation to designate the Scottish Ministers as the Competent Control Authority, which shall bear the responsibility for carrying out the controls on the requirements or standards in question. It enables the Scottish Ministers to require the relevant authorities to carry out controls. The regulation imposes statutory duties on the relevant authorities to send provisional control reports to the Scottish Ministers and to notify them of any non compliance with the requirements of these Regulations or the statutory management requirements established as a consequence of any kind of check.
Regulation 6 provides powers of entry for an authorised person. These powers are in addition to any existing power of entry and are for the purpose of providing a control report or establishing whether there has been a non-compliance with the requirements of these Regulations or the statutory management requirements.
Regulation 7 provides for an authorised person to request assistance. Regulation 8 specifies criminal offences and penalties to enforce cross-compliance for obstructing an authorised person and failing to provide assistance. Regulation 9 provides for offences of bodies corporate.
The requirements of good agricultural and environmental condition set out in the Schedule to these Regulations involve following cropping with suitable soil cover over winter and regulating the creation of final seedbeds; reducing the risk of soil loss due to wind erosion; avoiding capping of the soil; preventing erosion at watercourses, watering points and feeding areas; maintaining functional field drains; and compliance with the Muirburn Code.
Farmers must use suitable break crops or optimise the application of organic material on arable land, keeping records of organic material applied to land, and incorporate livestock manures.
They must avoid the use of machinery for planting or sowing on saturated land.
They must avoid undergrazing and overgrazing; protect pasture land of high agricultural and archaeological value; prevent new drainage works, ploughing up, clearing, levelling, re-seeding or cultivation of rough grazings and other semi-natural areas without approval under the Environmental Impact Assessment (Uncultivated Land and Semi-Natural Areas) (Scotland) Regulations 2002 (S.S.I. 2002/6); comply with restrictions on the application of pesticides, lime and fertiliser on rough grazings and other semi-natural areas; not remove, destroy or damage boundary features without the prior written consent of the Scottish Ministers; prevent the deterioration of landscape features without the prior written consent of the Scottish Ministers; not alter, damage or destroy a scheduled ancient monument, listed building or historic garden or designed landscape identified in the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland without the relevant consent or planning permission and ensure that unwanted vegetation does not encroach onto the land.
Paragraph 12(3) of the Schedule excludes European sites of special scientific interest within the meaning of the Conservation (Natural Habitats, &c.) Regulations 1994. Those sites are subject to cross-compliance controls directly applicable in Scots law as statutory management requirements under Chapter 1 of Title II of, and Annex III (entries A. 1 and 5) to, the Council Regulation.
The consequences of non-compliance with the requirements of good agricultural and environmental condition as provided for in these Regulations (or the statutory management requirements) are that subsidy penalties will be imposed, principally under Chapter 1 of Title II of the Council Regulation and Chapter II of Title IV of Commission Regulation (EC) 796/2004 (O.J. No. L 141, 30.4.2004, p.18), on the direct payments under the Common Agricultural Policy listed in Annex I to the Council Regulation.
Copies of guidance issued by the Scottish Ministers in relation to the standards of the statutory management requirements and good agricultural and environmental condition may be obtained from Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department agricultural area offices.
A Regulatory Impact Assessment has been prepared and placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre. A copy of it can be obtained from the Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department, Pentland House, 47 Robb’s Loan, Edinburgh EH14 1TY.