Guidance

Cross compliance

Cross compliance ends on 31 December 2023. If you are a farmer or land manager, find out what this means for you.

From:
Rural Payments Agency
Published
6 December 2023

Applies to England

If you are a farmer or land manager and claimed rural payments between 2005 and 2023, you had to follow a set of rules called cross compliance. These rules will end at midnight on 31 December 2023. 

What this means for you

From 1 January 2024 regulations will continue to protect the environment, and animal health and welfare.

You can read the rules for farmers and land managers for more information about the regulations you need to follow. These are grouped by farming activities rather than individual regulations so you can find the ones that apply to you.  

Compliance will be monitored by the existing statutory bodies and regulated in a fair, proportionate, and consistent way. This means, wherever possible, working with you to get it right and giving you opportunities to self-correct before taking any formal action.

Cross compliance rules will apply for the remainder of 2023. Read the Guide to cross compliance in England 2023 if you are claiming for:

  • the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS)
  • Countryside Stewardship (CS) agreements starting before 1 January 2021
  • Entry Level Stewardship (including Organic Entry Level Stewardship and Uplands Entry Level Stewardship) agreements starting on or after 1 January 2007
  • Higher Level Stewardship (including Organic Higher Level Stewardship and Uplands Higher Level Stewardship) agreements starting on or after 1 January 2007 – this includes extension agreements
  • the Farm Woodland Payments element of English Woodland Grant Scheme agreements starting on or after 1 January 2007

BPS

We are replacing BPS with delinked payments from 2024. If you claimed BPS in 2023, you should read the Delinked payments: replacing the Basic Payment Scheme guidance.

CS and ES agreements

We have updated your Terms and Conditions to reflect the end of cross compliance. You can read about the changes if you are:

We will re-publish the 2023 CS agreement holder’s guide with references to cross compliance removed.

Past cross compliance guidance is held on the National Archives website.

Contact us

If you need to contact us, you can:

Email: ruralpayments@defra.gov.uk

Telephone 03000 200 301

Write to us:

Rural Payments Agency (ES)

PO Box 390

Worksop

S80 9HD

Rural Payments Agency (CS)

PO Box 324

Worksop

S95 1DF

Published 6 December 2023
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