Correspondence

eAlert: 28 September 2020 - Updates to Woodland Management Plan Grant

Published 1 October 2020

Applies to England

• Publication for Northern Ireland
• Publication for Scotland
• Publication for Wales

28 September 2020

Read our updated operational update on coronavirus, complete our customer survey if you have received an invitation. Find out about the changes to the Woodland management plan grant to domestic regulations, RPA have sent reminders for capital claims - read about how this might impact you. We have found some mapping discrepancies, but have implemented a solution.

1. Operational Update: Coronavirus

Read our updated guidance.

Following the latest government announcements on 22 September 2020 on coronavirus, we have reviewed our working arrangements. This has included:

the use of site visits for grant, regulation and plant health work face to face meetings the controls for accessing our offices Following this review, we are still carrying out site visits to deliver grant, regulation and plant health work and for enforcement investigations. However, we have stepped back from most office use and from most face to face meetings, following the government’s latest advice to work from home where we can.

Due to the limited number of staff present in our offices we are still unable to take telephone calls. Please read our latest operational update on these arrangements and to find out how best to contact us.

We are still working hard to deliver all of our priority work during the current working arrangements, please continue to support us by following the guidance set out in our operational update.

2. Have you received your invitation to provide feedback?

Complete the survey.

If you have received a grant or licence decision in the last year, you will have received an invite to complete our customer survey. In order to understand how we can improve - we need your feedback.

Sending out the survey has been delayed because of the impacts of Coronavirus, so your decision may have been a while ago, but your feedback is still important. For any future decisions on grants or licences, you will receive a link to complete the survey immediately.

3. Countryside Stewardship Woodland management plan grant

Changes to domestic regulations.

Woodland Management Plan applications will be available under domestic funding from 1 October 2020. The Countryside Stewardship Woodland Management Plan manual will be published on GOV.UK on 1 October 2020. However, in order to close the EU scheme and transfer to the domestic regulations there will be a gap in accepting new applications. The new application forms for you to apply will be available on GOV.UK for from 15 October 2020 - this later than first expected and is required due to the complexity of IT changes and testing. Please see the woodland support section of the Countryside Stewardship: how to apply page for updates.

4. Reminders for capital claims

The RPA are aware and are contacting affected customers.

We have been made aware of agents and customers receiving emails from the RPA regarding capital claims. We have investigated this with the RPA and have found it to be an automated message that does not take into account of whether the capital works have been completed and/or claimed, or if extensions have been agreed.

We are aware that some customers may also receive an automatic notification in December to alert them to submit their final claim by 31 March 2020. The RPA are aware of the issue and are making contact with affected customers.

We apologise for any confusion this may have caused. If any customers have concerns, they can contact the RPA on the RPA Helpline:

Email: ruralpayments@defra.gov.uk Telephone: 03000 200 301

5. Mapping discrepancies and our solution to resolve them

We are implementing a new solution to reduce the administrative burden.

We wanted to make our customers aware that we have identified some mapping discrepancies, when processing felling licence applications which are linked to Woodland Management Plans. The discrepancies occurred between the “Inventory Plan of Operations” (IPO) compartment areas and the digitised area calculated by Felling Licence Online.

These discrepancies are a consequence of many factors, such as differences between software base layer maps, incompatible attributes tables and intricate compartment shapes. All of these factors, amongst others, means that GIS data supplied by the applicant or when manually transposing from paper maps, result in minor discrepancies in the area calculated of a digitised polygon. Up until now, we have made every effort to accommodate a level of accuracy by amending the polygon to match the IPO areas or by asking the applicant to amend their IPO to match the digitised area calculated in FLO. Unfortunately, in certain circumstances this has made the digitising task overly onerous for applicants and the Forestry Commission alike. As such, we are implementing a new solution to help reduce administrative burdens.

From now on, the Forestry Commission will accept most minor area discrepancies described above. Where mapping area discrepancies are minor, the processing of a felling licence will continue, and the licence will be granted subject to due process. This will be done by accepting that the applicants compartment areas, stated in the IPO, may be slightly different to the areas calculated by Felling Licence Online and therefore on occasion the IPO Area will be different to the ‘Digitised Area ha’ stated on the licence. The applicants IPO will remain on file and should continue to be a supporting document to the felling licence and referred to by the applicant or Forestry Commission as required. Where Felling or Restocking areas exceed the Gross Area stated in the IPO, this will still be returned to applicant as an obvious error.