12 Breach of agreement
What happens if you do not meet the Terms and Conditions of your Grant Funding Agreement.
If you do not adhere to the terms and conditions set out in Section 15 ‘Terms and Conditions’ for the duration of your agreement, we would class this as a breach.
Examples of regulation breaches include:
If you:
- do not report, as soon as reasonably possible, a change in circumstances which affect your ability to meet your agreement
- give false or misleading information, intentionally or unintentionally
- do not provide information or evidence when it’s asked for and in the way it’s asked for
- prevent a virtual or physical site visit from being carried out
- refuse to assist an authorised person in the course of a site visit.
If we find a breach, we will write to you and tell you. You’ll have the opportunity to appeal if you do not agree with our findings.
If a breach is confirmed, we’ll work out the most appropriate action we need to take and let you know. We may apply more than one course of action depending on the breach found.
We’ll assess the level of breach in a fair and consistent manner, on a case-by-case basis, using the following set of criteria:
- to what extent the breach can be rectified
- the circumstances, nature and consequences surrounding the breach
- any failure to cooperate with site visits, or further investigations
- any steps taken to report a change in circumstances
- whether it is an isolated or a repeat occurrence
- whether it was intentional
- whether it was because of reckless of negligent action.
If there’s a breach of your agreement or the regulations, we may:
- ask you to correct the breach
- issue a letter explaining that we’ve assessed the breach and what you have to do
- amend your agreement.
For more serious breaches, we may:
- reduce the payments you get, or withhold part of them
- reduce or withhold money from other schemes
- recover money we’ve already paid.
In the most extreme cases, we may:
- end your agreement
- stop you receiving financial assistance (other than BPS) under any other scheme for up to 2 years.
In exceptional circumstances where there is reasonable suspicion of a serious breach or fraud, then we may access land and your premises without notice, using powers of entry. In these circumstances, for example as part of a fraud investigation, we may access any computer that’s been used in connection with the evidence or these records.
You may have previously seen exceptional or understandable reasons why you are unable to meet the terms of your agreement called ‘Force Majeure’.
If you cannot meet the terms of your agreement for a good reason, you (or any person authorised to act on your behalf) must write to tell us as soon as you are in a position to do so. We will look at the circumstances and evidence provided on a case-by-case basis and decide what, if any, action will be taken.
You will need to provide written evidence to show:
- what has happened
- how the event meant you were unable to meet the terms and conditions of your agreement.
The following examples may be considered good reasons for a breach:
- the death or long-term professional incapacity of the Facilitator
- a severe natural disaster, including flooding or droughts that gravely affect the land related to your agreement
- the accidental destruction of capital items connected to your agreement
- damage caused by criminality
- supply chain issues
- an epizootic or a plant disease affecting part or all of your crops, trees, or livestock
- serious illness
- expropriation (confiscation) of all or a large part of the land (providing that the confiscation could not have been anticipated at the time the application for funds was made).
We will consider the facts to decide whether or not you will be relieved of all or part of your obligations under the agreement, and whether all or part of the grant should be withheld or repaid. If you are aware of the issue when entering into your agreement then it is unlikely to fall under exceptional circumstances.
All cases of suspected fraud will be investigated.
If you are worried whether an approach you might wish to take to deliver the aims of a standard could be considered fraudulent, you should contact us to discuss.