Too many farmers hit by too severe penalties, says NFU

NFU Scotland reacted angrily to figures published yesterday showing the number of farmers who have been penalised for errors in the registration of their cattle has doubled.

Last year, some 346 cattle producers were caught out following farm inspections. This compared with 165 in 2008.

Those producers who had made mistakes in form-filling and submission of their registration documents had their support payment cut last year by 1,394,409, which is more than five times the penalties imposed in 2008.

The penalties are imposed on a percentage basis based on the severity and number of breaches and last year some 30 producers were penalised by more than 5 per cent of their total Single Farm Payment.

According to the NFU, the penalty levels are now significantly out of line with the severity of the errors.

The Scottish Government was obliged to bring in new penalty arrangements for various support schemes in 2009 following a critical EU audit of the penalty system across the UK as a whole.

While there was no change in what constituted a breach of the rules in 2009, compared with 2008, there was a change in how the level of penalty was calculated and this resulted in an increase in the penalty imposed.

According to the Scottish Government, the Commission's view is that the level of penalty for any non-compliance should be 3 per cent. In Scotland until last year, minor cross-compliance breaches received a warning letter or 1 per cent penalty.

The NFU is also seeking a legal opinion on the retrospective way the new penalties were imposed. Many of the farms hit by higher penalty rates were inspected early in 2009 but it was not until late 2009 that full details on the scale of the penalties associated with any breaches were confirmed.

Union president Jim McLaren said it was totally unacceptable that minor, unintentional infringements faced severe penalties where previously they incurred a letter of warning or a low level of fine.

The NFU has written to the Agriculture and Rural Development Department of the European Commission about the level of penalties and it has made the case that proportionality must be taken into account when determining the level of fines applied to breaches of support scheme rules.

"We are calling for the Scottish Government to also press the case with the EU on the severity of the penalty matrix and to press for a proportionate system that takes account of the realities on the ground.

"We need to look at alternatives, such as a series of fixed penalties, that more accurately and proportionately reflect the severity of any error."

While cattle registrations dominated the penalty list, about 60 farmers were penalised for poor welfare of their stock, 12 had transgressed in the use of illegal plant protection products and 13 had fallen foul of regulations relating to water pollution.

In total, some 16 different regulations within the cross-compliance requirements were broken by farmers last year.