Confirm your information and apply
This section tells you what you need to check before you submit your application
The ‘Grant totals’ and ‘Application summary’ tabs in Annex 1, and ‘Summary’ tab in Annex 2 give useful information about the options and items that you have chosen and the financial value of your application. The information in them appears automatically as you fill in the annexes. If you have completed paper annexes, this information will not appear unless you manually fill it in.
Annex 1 – Grant totals tab – use this tab to confirm for yourself the value of your application.
Annex 1– Application summary tab – use this tab to confirm for yourself that you have added all the correct options and items into your application.
Annex 2 – Summary tab – use this tab to confirm for yourself that you have added all the correct options and items into your application
Before you submit your application you can use this checklist to help you make sure that you have done everything you need to do.
You’ve read and understood the CS scheme rules and requirements including the terms and conditions in the Higher Tier manual.
You and the land that you are including in your application, are eligible for CS – read Section 3: ‘Who can apply and what land is eligible’ section in the Higher Tier manual.
You’ve registered all of the land in your application in the Rural Payments service. Checked all the details are correct and submitted an RLE1 form for any land that is not already registered.
This includes farmyards on which you apply for capital works or maintenance of weatherproof traditional farm buildings.
The application does not have to cover the whole holding but it must include all land parcels that will support rotational options for the whole period of the agreement and all Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) or Scheduled Monuments (SM) within your control.
Cross compliance requirements apply across the whole holding.
You have the correct permission levels in the Rural Payments service to complete and submit this application.
To authorise an agent to act on your behalf of this business, anyone with ‘Business Details – Full permission’ for the business can give an agent ‘CS Applications – Submit’ permission.
You have your County Parish Holding (CPH) number to hand if you are contacting the Forestry Commission or a Catchment Sensitive Farming officer (CSFO). Read ‘Get a permanent CPH number’ on GOV.UK, search for Register land you use to keep livestock.
You’ve completed Annex 1 and/or 2 (if appropriate)
You’ve given the following details in your Annex 1a:
- all land parcels at moderate to high risk from runoff or soil erosion
- land use codes for all the land parcels in this Higher Tier application. Unless you are applying for BPS this year, then you only need to give the land use codes for any land parcels in your Higher Tier application that are not in the BPS application.
- all land parcels, including those with yards and tracks, you want to consider for soil and water (water quality) and resource protection options/capital items
- all land parcels you want to be considered for the Wild Pollinator and Farm Wildlife Package
- all land parcels containing SSSIs
- all land parcels containing Scheduled Monuments
- all organic land parcels
You’ve completed the following maps for an Agri-environment only or Agri-environment with Woodland Support application:
-
a Farm Environment Record (FER) map including:
- all features and area on the land parcels included in your application
- all land parcels containing Scheduled Monuments
- all land parcels containing SSSIs
- all land parcels at moderate to high risk from runoff or soil erosion
- an Options map for the multi-year and capital items in your Agri-environment application
- a separate Options/Agreement map for Woodland Support
- for water quality capital items only, a sketch map showing the location of the farmyard and all farmyard water quality options.
You’ve completed an Options/Agreement map for the multi-year and capital items in your Woodland Support application if applicable.
You’ve filled in Section 5: Declaration and undertakings of the application form. (You only need to sign in the box if you are submitting a paper application form by post.)
You know what supporting documents you must submit with your application. You’ve completed and attached them where necessary:
- CS Land Ownership and Control form(s) - read Question 4 a copy of your tenancy agreement (if you have a public body landlord) – read Question 4
- written support from your Catchment Sensitive Farming officer – read Question 17
- a CS common land and shared grazing supplementary application form – read Question 6
- the required evidence if someone else applies for BPS on any land in your Higher Tier application – read Question 7. And read about dual use under ‘Management control: eligibility and scheme rules’ in the Higher Tier manual.
You understand what evidence is needed for your application; this depends on the options you choose.
For more information about evidence read the ‘How to Apply’ section and section 5.4 in the Higher Tier manual on GOV.UK. Or for information about evidence for each option and capital item read Countryside Stewardship grants on GOV.UK.
You’ve attached any other required supporting documents, evidence, or permissions and consents applied for.
You’ve told us the number of continuation sheets you’ve used (if applicable).
We must receive your application and supporting documents by midnight on 30 April 2021. We may also need to receive some evidence by this date – read below.
Supporting documents
For example:
- Options map
- FER map
- Woodland Support agreement map
- Land Ownership and Control form(s)
- Common land and shared grazing supplementary application form
Maps – for more information about what to include in your maps, read ‘Step 2 – Your Farm Environment Record (FER) map(s)’ and ‘Step 5 – Your options map(s)’. Or read the ‘How to Apply’ section in the Higher Tier manual for 2021 on GOV.UK.
Evidence
Some evidence RPA may need to receive by midnight on 30 April 2021, and some you may need to keep until you’re asked for it. Read about the evidence requirements for each relevant option or capital item in ‘Countryside Stewardship grants’ on GOV.UK.
How to submit your supporting documents or evidence
You can scan and email all the documents to RPA. You must put your SBI and Application ID on all documents.
The maximum size of emails we can accept is 32MB. If the email exceeds this limit, please send a further email and use the same subject heading. Add the number of emails at the end of the subject heading, for example, 1 of 3, 2 of 3, 3 of 3.
For security reasons, we cannot accept discs, USB pen drives or other external storage media.
You can submit digital photos by email, but do not scan printed photos as the quality is not good enough.
Or you can post the documents to us using the address in ‘More information and contacts’ below.
For more information read Step 10 – Submit your application.
All of the following must reach RPA by the application deadline (midnight on 30 April 2021):
- all sections of the completed application form
- all relevant completed annexes
- all completed maps and any other supporting documents
- any evidence that Countryside Stewardship grants shows must be submitted.
For all applications you must:
- put your SBI and Application ID on everything you send to us
- have the correct permission level (at least ‘CS Applications – Submit’) in the Rural Payments service.
Submit your application by email
If you received your application pack by email ‘reply’ to that email, attaching your completed documents to it. You’ll need to scan the completed maps and supporting documents first. By ‘replying’ to the email we sent to you, rather than sending us a new email, your application will be automatically forwarded to the correct team and won’t wait in a queue to be sorted manually.
If you downloaded your application pack or received it by post you can submit it by email. Scan all the documents, attach them to an email and send the email to ruralpayments@defra.gov.uk. The subject of your email must be:
- ‘Higher Tier Agri-environment application 2021’ for Agri-environment applications (with or without Woodland Support) or;
- ‘Higher Tier Woodland Support application 2021’ for Woodland Support only applications
You must put your SBI and Application ID number in your email as well as on everything you attach to the email.
Make sure that the email address you’re sending your application from is registered for your business in the Rural Payments service.
Send your application by post
If you received your application pack by post and cannot submit it by email, you can post it to:
Rural Payments Agency (Countryside Stewardship),
PO Box 324,
Worksop
S95 1DF
Remember to sign your paper application at Section 5 before you submit it.
We recommend that you get proof of posting for any documents you send to us by post. You should keep a copy of everything you send to us.