Site visits: Countryside Stewardship and Environmental Stewardship
Information for Countryside Stewardship and Environmental Stewardship agreement holders on how to prepare for a site visit and what you are asked to provide.
Applies to England
The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) Field Officers visit a sample of agreements each year to check that agreement holders are meeting the schemes’ terms and conditions. Their role is to provide you with advice to help you achieve better outcomes from your agreement and make it easier to comply with the scheme rules.
You must give the Field Officer access to your land at a reasonable time, and you should be available to meet them when they arrive.
Environmental Stewardship 2nd, 3rd and 4th edition agreements
The terms and conditions have been modified for 2nd edition (2008), 3rd edition (2010) and 4th edition (2013), Entry Level, Organic Entry Level, Uplands Entry Level and Higher Level Stewardship handbooks.
From 1 January 2023, agreement holders must follow the addendum to their original terms and conditions issued on 31 October 2022.
Countryside Stewardship (CS) agreements starting before 1 January 2021
From 1 January 2023, agreement holders with agreements starting before 1 January 2021 must follow the modified terms and conditions.
CS agreements starting on or after 1 January 2021
CS agreements which started on or after 1 January 2021 must meet the terms and conditions included in your agreement.
Who gets a site visit
RPA Field Officers can select any agreement holder for a site visit. They may try to combine visits if you have more than one agri-agreement scheme, such as CS or ES agreement, or have claimed other agri-environmental grants.
Notice period for a site visit
We will try to agree with you a suitable date and time for a site visit, where possible. This is usually within 72 hours for multi-annual agreements or 14 days for capital works. If this is not possible, you will be notified at least 48 hours in advance of the site visit. If we have reason to suspect that you’re in breach of your agreement we may visit without prior notice.
What to expect from a site visit
The Field Officer will need details and location of any:
- rotational options
- relevant livestock on the farm
- mobile capital items
To save time you should keep:
- agreements and option records up-to-date and close at hand
- receipts, invoices or other supporting information together and sorted by date
- copies of claims, declarations or other agreement-related documents that you have submitted
For each option in your agreement, details of the management activities you need to carry out are included in the agreement. You must keep records to show your management activity for each option.
For some options, you may have to:
- record management activities in on-farm diaries, such as applying fertilisers or pesticides
- maintain stocking diaries to show when land parcels were grazed, or supplementary feeding was used
- monitor reports for year 3 and 5 of the agreement to confirm progress (for example providing before and after photographs, a record of the number of deer culled and the results of squirrel monitoring)
For more information on record keeping requirements read the handbook or manual relevant to your agreement:
There are specific requirements for livestock record keeping in:
- agreement holders’ information: Countryside Stewardship - a document in the manual for agreements that started in 2016 or 2017, or an annex in manuals for later years
- livestock record-keeping: Environmental Stewardship
At a site visit, the Field Officer will:
- confirm the agreement they need to check
- discuss a schedule for the visit and estimate how long it will take
- explain what they need to check
- discuss with you what evidence and records they may need to see
- check your agreement options and any capital items that form part of your agreement
- check records, invoices and other evidence if applicable
- check if there are changes to boundaries or ineligible features
- check the requirements as set out in the scheme handbooks
- write notes and take photographs to support observations they make in their report
You should make sure the Field Officer sees all your land under the agreement and is made aware of locations of rotational arable options.
We will continue to support customers by offering advice and guidance to help bring about the environmental benefits from their revenue options or capital items.
What the Field Officer will check
Records
The Field Officer may need to check some records during the visit to confirm management activities. You may also need to show them any permissions or consents you have obtained, in order to carry out your agreement.
For capital items claimed, you will need to show the:
- evidence of when you purchased materials and where you installed them - to confirm this is within the terms of your agreement
- invoices, receipts and bank records relevant to purchased items and contractor payments - to confirm they have been paid for
Options
The Field Officer will:
- walk the land you have under agreement
- record observations to check you are managing the options as specified in your agreement
- take measurements of options or mapping changes using GPS devices or a tape measure for small lengths of options
- take photographs to support their observations
They will discuss their measurements with you either:
- there and then if you’re accompanying them
- at the end of the visit, during the review of their observations
Capital items
The Field Officer will check capital items are to specification and in appropriate locations.
Besides checks made before payment, some capital items have a maintenance commitment. This means the Field Officer may have to check previously claimed items to make sure you:
- still own these items
- are maintaining the items and are using them for the purposes for which you were awarded funding
Your agreement will give the number of years these items must be maintained for.
Review of the site visit
At the end of the site visit, the Field Officer will discuss their findings with you. They will do this at the end of their visit or arrange a convenient time for a telephone call. It’s important that you have this conversation with them as they will explain:
- differences between your agreement requirements and what was found during the site visit
- mapping updates needed to the Rural Payments service, such as changes in boundaries or undeclared ineligible features
If you are concerned about any of the findings:
- the Field Officer may be able to go back to the feature with you to explain their observations
- you have the opportunity to discuss them
- they can be recorded on the site visit report form
The Field Officer will be able to discuss their findings with you, and they will provide guidance, support and sign posting to more information, where required. This does not mean that they will ignore breaches of your agreement management.
Follow up visit
A Field Officer may visit again to check seasonal options that could not be seen during the first site visit.
Field Officer’s report
We will send you a copy of the Field Officer’s report once they have completed any checks and updated mapping changes needed to the Rural Payments service.
Site visit results
We will write to you to confirm the results of the visit once we have considered the Field Officer’s report.
The results may include:
- encouraging you to adopt different management practices to help meet your agreement’s requirements
- a reduction to your payment
- a penalty if you have not complied with the terms of your agreement (this will only apply to EU payments made for claims in 2022 or earlier)
You should not try to draw any conclusions about the results of the site visit before you receive it.
Your site visit may result in changes to other land-based payments you claim, such as the Basic Payment Scheme, forestry and other agri-environment schemes.
We aim to complete our assessment of the site visit quickly so that we can make your payment for the year.
Where we need to make reductions or recoveries, or your agreement needs to be amended, you may have to repay all or part of a grant you have already received. We will explain the reasons for recovering some of your payment.
Last updated 1 January 2024 + show all updates
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Removed cross compliance requirements for England. Cross compliance no longer applies in England from 1 January 2024.
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The following sentence has been amended in the section 'Review of the site visit'. At the end of the site visit, the Field Officer will discuss their findings with you to make sure they are accurate.' The wording 'to make sure they are accurate' has been removed.
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First published.