Rural Payments and Services

Customers who wish to apply for the Scottish Upland Sheep Support Scheme and/or the Scottish Suckler Beef Support Scheme, when they open later in the year, must first complete a Single Application Form (SAF) this year by the deadline of the 15th of June.

It is crucial that anyone wishing to apply for these support schemes later in the year, must first submit a SAF. This is detailed in scheme guidance and follows the same procedures as previous years when applying for similar support schemes. Please be aware that if this does not happen, any claim will not be valid and we will not make a payment.

Please refer to the full guidance for more information:

Scottish Upland Sheep Support Scheme guidance

Scottish Suckler Beef Support Scheme guidance

There was a maintenance window last night to allow us to make more system improvements. We understand that all of the improvements below were addressed, but if you continue to have problems with any of them then please let us know:

SAF improvements

Two errors had some compatibility options which incorrectly showed as incompatible such as:

• Land Managers Options (LMO) dyke with fallow land use

• Land Managers Options (LMO) dyke with hedgerows linear features

FGS and AECS improvements

Adding a grid reference or valid land parcel into an AECS or FGS application using the 'added land' function incorrectly produced errors which stopped the application from being submitted.

Just a reminder that you need to apply for National Reserve funding by the deadline of 15 June or risk being permanently excluded from Direct Payments under the new CAP.

For full details please refer to the National Reserve guidance or read the news release from the launch on January 2015.