Tuesday 10:54
RPA Offices and Drop in Centres are open for farmers to deposit their completed forms between 8.30am and 5pm everyday, including weekends between now and the closing date of Monday 16th May.
Farmers should ensure they have completed and signed all relevant sections and initialled and dated any corrections before bringing in the forms.
RPA also recommend farmers take a copy of their completed forms in case they have to make contact with any queries.
Applicants who miss the deadline face severe reductions of 4% per working day from their payments. Applications received after 10th June will miss out completely as no entitlements will be allocated after that date for the entire period of the scheme.
RPA Chief Executive Johnston McNeill said: "May 16th is the last chance to submit SPS forms before the significant reduction to payments of 4% per working day kicks in."
END
Notes for Editors
1. RPA is an executive agency of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). It is the single paying agency responsible for CAP schemes in England and is responsible for administering the SPS in England.
2. The SPS was introduced by Council Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 and replaced most existing crop and livestock schemes from 1 January 2005.
3. The introduction of the SPS is the biggest change in agriculture in the last 30 years. Farmers used to be paid according to production levels, but from 1 Jan this year the Single Payment replaced the majority of the old subsidy regimes. The new system means farmers are free to produce what the market wants, rather than what subsidy dictates, whilst also delivering a high level of environmental protection through "cross compliance".
4. In the early years, the Single Payment is largely linked to a farmer's historical subsidy record, but by 2012 it will become an entirely flat rate payment. The proportion of available funds to be allocated on the flat rate basis in each year will be: 10%, 15%, 30%, 45%, 60%, 75%, 90%, 100%.
5. RPA issued Information Statements during July-September 2004 to all producers who had received support payments in the reference period 2000-2002. The Information Statements gave details of the number of animals and areas of land that will be used to calculate the historic element of the Single Payment.
6. Separate announcements are being made about SPS arrangements in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
7. A list of RPA offices is shown below.
RPA Offices BRISTOL Block 3 Government Buildings Burghill Road Westbury on Trym Bristol BS10 6NJ CARLISLE Eden Bridge House Lowther Street Carlisle Cumbria CA3 8DX CREWE Electra Way Crewe Business Park Crewe Cheshire CW1 6GJ EXETER Clyst House Winslade Park Clyst St Mary Exeter EX5 1DY NEWCASTLE Lancaster House Hampshire Court Newcastle-Upon-Tyne NE4 7YH NEWMARKET Hyperion House Unit 2 The Oaks Fordham Road Newmarket Suffolk CB8 7XN NORTHALLERTON Alverton Court Crosby Road Northallerton North Yorkshire DL6 1AD NOTTINGHAM Block 7 Government Buildings Chalfont Drive Nottingham NG8 3SN READING North Gate House Valpy Street Reading RG1 1AF WORCESTER Block B Government Buildings Whittington Road Worcester WR5 2LQ WORKINGTON Curwen Road Workington Cumbria CA14 2DD
Issued on behalf of RPA by the Government News Network
All GNN press releases are online at http://www.gnn.gov.uk
Client ref 397/SWW/05
