The penalty applied under the 2016 Basic Payment Scheme relates to breaches of Cross Compliance requirements. Under the Terms and Conditions of the Basic Payment Scheme and other area-based schemes, an applicant as well as meeting the scheme criteria, must comply with EU regulatory requirements relating to Cross Compliance.
An inspection was carried out by my Department's Agri-Environment Schemes Division on 27 July 2016. The inspector reported a breach relating to the cross compliance requirements in respect of the GAEC Standard relating to landscape features. In this instance the person named had removed hedgerows and had not re-instated them as required. This breach resulted in a 5% penalty being applied against the 2016 Direct Schemes payments.
The person named was notified of this decision on 28 November 2016. A review of this decision was requested, the outcome of which was to up-hold the original inspection findings. The person named was notified of this decision on 8 June 2017.
It is open to the person named to appeal this decision to the independent Agriculture Appeals Office, within 3 months of the date of the review outcome letter. I understand that to date no such request has been received by that office.