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Environmental Stewardship: guidance and forms for agreement holders

Use these documents to meet the requirements for an Entry Level Stewardship (ELS), Organic ELS, Uplands ELS or Higher Level Stewardship agreement.

From:
Rural Payments Agency, Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, and Natural England
Published
17 April 2015
Last updated
12 June 2021 — See all updates

Latest news

Deadline for Environmental Stewardship (ES) annual claims

The final deadline for submitting your annual claim was 11 June 2021.

Claims received after 11 June 2021 will be rejected (apart from cases accepted as force majeure and exceptional circumstances).

For more information, please read how to get paid under an agreement.

How to contact us about Environmental Stewardship

If you want to contact us about Environmental Stewardship you can phone our Customer Service Centre on 03000 200 301 or email us at: ruralpayments@defra.gov.uk and include ‘Environmental Stewardship’ in the email subject line.

What do I need to do?

Sign in to the Rural Payments service and make sure your details are registered and up to date. We will use these details to confirm your identity when you contact us.

You will need your Customer Reference Number (CRN) and password, or sign in through GOV.UK Verify, then:

  • update your email address
  • update your telephone numbers
  • update your business permission levels
  • add people to your business (with ‘View Business’ permissions, for example.)

For more information about what you can do in the Rural Payments service, go to the Rural Payments: registering and updating your details page.

If you need any help updating your details, please call us on 03000 200 301 and choose the ‘Rural Payments registration’ option.

Guidance

Forms: all scheme levels

Forms: Entry Level Stewardship (ELS), Organic ELS and Uplands ELS

Forms: Higher Level Stewardship

Published 17 April 2015
Last updated 12 June 2021 + show all updates

  1. Edited latest news to confirm deadline of 11 June has passed and annual claims cannot be submitted now.

  2. Edited latest news following the deadline of 17 May passing. Updated wording and confirmed changes to RP service - transfers of land no longer available.

  3. Updated the Latest news 6 May 2021 to include a message about additional helpline opening times

  4. RPA helpline hours between Thursday 1 April and Tuesday 6 April.

  5. Opening of claims in 2021 - text and links updated.

  6. Under ‘Latest news’, removed section: ‘Extra month to claim for farm payments’

  7. Link added to news article regarding the 'Extra month to claim for farm payments'

  8. Added Environmental Stewardship Scheme query form

  9. Added the 'Minor and temporary adjustment (MTA) form: Countryside Stewardship and Environmental Stewardship' to the Forms section All Schemes

  10. Latest news item added to inform customers the way they contact us about Environmental Stewardship is changing from 1 July 2019

  11. Information updated following 15 May deadline.

  12. Information published about Drop-in centres.

  13. Link to guidance for those finding it difficult to meet scheme requirements due to hot and dry weather conditions.

  14. Deadline for late applications and amendments has passed.

  15. Deadline for late amendments to claims is 11 June.

  16. Deadline for late claims is 11 June 2018. Deadline for amendments to claims is 31 May.

  17. Guidance for agreement holders affected by HS2.

  18. First published.

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