1. Tranfers

While transfers of entitlements are nearly behind us for 2006 the relaxation of the 6 week notification period to 3 weeks has created some opportunity for additional transfers to take place.

The 23rd April deadline for 2006 is for England only and is unlikely to be repeated in 2007.

2. Payments

At the end of last week 35,944 claims had been processed by the RPA - this represents 30% of all claims but only 18% of the total payments to be distributed

3. 2006 Applications

Less than 30% of the 2006 claims have now been dispatched. Remember the deadline for completion remains the 15th May - this will not alter.

Forms received to date contain many errors so check them very carefully. Common errors are: incorrect areas (whether validated or not), omissions of National Reserve or Hardship awards, duplicated forms (both of which contain different information)

Do not assume any data on these forms is correct

4. Calculations

We have completed series of calculators available for your use - these are available on public folders - file path is:

\\fpdukintraweb\PublicFolders\Intranet_PublicFolders\Savills Ltd\Research\Rural Research\MTR_SPS\Calculators

The calculators will enable you to project farmer income streams, entitlement value as well as verifying entitlement statements.

5. 2006 Compliance

The 2006 explanatory guides are now available. The main additional work is the completion, using a prescribed format, of the Soil Protection Review by the 1 September 2006. This is in addition to any agreement under an ELS application.

The following links you may find useful;

Handbook and Guidance 2006
Cross Compliance Handbook for England 2006 (PDF document)
Cross Compliance Guidance for Soil Management 2006 (PDF document)
Cross compliance Soil Protection review (PDF document)
Set-aside Handbook and Guidance for England (PDF document)