Chamber and committees

The Energy Assistance Package was introduced on 6 April 2009. This is when the first applications to Stage 4 were received by the Energy Saving Trust. These were forwarded by the Energy Saving Trust to Scottish Gas on 22 April 2009. The last referrals for that year were created on 30 March 2010, and sent to Scottish Gas on 31 March 2010.

All farmers and crofters have a fundamental right of appeal against the recovery, reduction, or refusal of subsidy for whatever reason. This right is provided by The Rural Payments (Appeals) (Scotland) Regulations 2009 (Scottish Statutory Instrument 2009/376, 20 November 2009). Those affected are advised of this right in the letters issued by Scottish Government''s Rural Payments and Inspections Directorate advising them of any revisions to claimed eligible areas.

The Scottish Government''s Rural Payments and Inspections Directorate (SGRPID) does not have any discretion to vary the level of penalties. Only the EC can alter the penalty regime by changing its legislative base. SGRPID''s approach to mitigation, therefore, is to help farmers and crofters to claim only land that is eligible for support and, thus, avoid penalties. It has done so by setting out what constitute eligible land in guidance booklets supporting its subsidy schemes, by holding around 20 public meetings, in cooperation with the National Farmers Union of Scotland, that were attended by over 2,000 farmers to hear how they could safeguard their CAP payments and by issuing a personal letter to farmers detailing how they could avail themselves of provisions to amend applications forms to remove ineligible land and avoid penalties.

Any reductions in the area claimed, as a result of declaring land over and above what would otherwise be considered as eligible are calculated on the basis of a physical measurement using modern mapping and measurement technologies. Each calculation of land area is also informed by an assessment of eligibility by a professional trained agricultural officer. This methodology ensures that the deduction is reasonable. With the issue of proportionality, the Scottish Government''s Rural Payments and Inspections Directorate does not have any discretion to vary the level of penalties as these are set by the European Commission. The penalty regime, however, differentiates between over declarations committed intentionally, for which the level of penalty is severe, and those committed through oversight where the level of penalty varies according to the scale of the over claim and the eligible land found.

The Scottish Government''s Rural Payments and Inspections Directorate (SGRPID) has worked with the National Farmers Union of Scotland (NFUS), and taken its advice, on how best to communicate with farmers and crofters on how they can avoid penalties by claiming only land that meets eligibility requirements. A number of meetings were held between senior officials, NFUS'' office bearers, and senior official with the aim of minimising any loss of support due to over declaration penalties. At a public level, SGRPID and NFUS worked together to put this objective into practice. Firstly, a series of public meetings to remind farmers about their obligations to claim only eligible land, secondly, SGRPID''s Chief Agricultural Officer provided articles for The Scottish Farmer on the same themes and thirdly, after consultation with NFUS, SGRPID issued a personal letter to all farmers likely to be involved with either the Single Farm Payment Scheme and / or the Less-Favoured Area Support Scheme, containing advice on how to avoid penalties.

The Scottish Government''s Rural Payments and Inspections Directorate (SGRPID) receives numerous enquiries from its client group of c.21,000 farmers, and crofters. It does not keep, however, records of those enquiries as a matter of routine. It is not possible, therefore, to undertake the analysis required in order to answer this question.

The inspection cycle for 2010-11 is underway but not complete so it is not possible to answer the question as asked. The analysis of the 2009-10 inspection cycle shows the following:

Number of inspections undertaken: 1,107;

Number penalised in penalty band up to 3%: 178;

Number penalised in penalty band three to 50%: 53;

Number penalised in penalty band +50%: 6.

The inspection cycle for 2010-11 is underway but not complete and the settlement of claims has not begun, so it is not possible to answer the question as asked.

No comparison of penalty regimes associated with declaring land over and above what would otherwise be considered as eligible has been undertaken. Since the penalty regime is set in European legislation and, therefore, applicable to all member states, such a comparison would not be worthwhile.

Orkney Islands Council, Shetland Islands Council and Argyll and Bute Council have, through regular road equivalent tariff (RET) stakeholder meetings, and the recent Scottish ferries review meetings, been kept fully involved and informed during all stages of the RET pilot. t