Rural Payments and Services

The new CAP system is designed to be simpler and fairer. By 2019, farmers and crofters with similar quality land will all receive the same payment per hectare if they carry out a minimum level of activity.

This will be done using regionalisation and convergence.

Under the new CAP, all farming land in Scotland has been categorised into three regions:

Payment Region 1

This includes better quality agricultural land that has been used for arable cropping, temporary grass and permanent grass.

Payment Region 2

This includes rough grazing with a Less Favoured Areas (LFA) grazing category of B, C, D or non-LFA.

Payment Region 3

This includes rough grazing with an LFA grazing category A.

Based on land quality and usage, each region has a different value against it. To receive ongoing support beyond 2015, you will need to match each entitlement you have been allocated with the equivalent eligible area in the relevant Payment Region, based on the land you have at your disposal on 15 May each year.

Because of the way entitlements were calculated in the past, the value of these entitlements in 2015 will differ from business to business.

Convergence is being introduced to make this fairer, with the aim of paying everyone the same entitlement value per Payment Region by 2019. We will carry out a convergence calculation, comparing the 2014 entitlement values with the 2019 target, and adjust the value of your entitlements from 2015 to 2019 in equal percentage steps.

This means the value will change, upwards or downwards, 20 per cent at a time towards the target until 2019. The following diagram shows how this will work.

The value of each entitlement will be calculated once the payment rates for each region are finalised.

However, it is not possible to know what the final payment rates for each entitlement in each region will be at the end of convergence at this time.

To help with any questions you have, we have set up a helpline.

Entitlements and Payments Information Helpline – 0300 300 2222

Staff will answer any questions about the letters we will be issuing over the next few months, general queries about new entitlements, and questions about payments for the 2015 scheme year (for the Basic Payment Scheme).

Lines are open from 8.30am to 5pm on Monday to Thursday and from 8.30am to 4.30pm on a Friday.