Contracts

Date published: 12 November, 2025

If your application for AECS funding is successful, you will be notified as soon as the budget is confirmed, this is usually around late January/early February. You will then be sent a contract offer.

AECS contracts normally run for 5 calendar years. (Certain contracts are shorter, where they only have a single capital item such as an irrigation lagoon.) Contracts with capital items also includes a maintenance period which runs for up to 5 years from the final payment date for a capital item.

Each contract offer has the following sections:

  • a covering letter
  • standard terms and conditions
  • there may also be additional conditions which will have been discussed with you/your agent.
  • for contracts issued in the 2025 round onwards there will be an additional condition relating to Fair Work First
  • an acceptance page for you to sign
  • Schedule of Works detailing the management activities that we are funding, including the locations and the years that they will take place. It also shows the associated payments
  • there will normally be one or more maps showing where the activities in the Schedule of Works are due to take place

For agri-environment contracts we will also send you an accompanying management diary for the first year of your contract. This is used to record, for instance, when stock are turned out or removed from a particular field. We may also include a copy of your agreed management plans and grazing plans for your ease of reference.

On receipt of a contract offer you have the choice to accept the offer, reject the offer or to ask for a review of the funding decision. If you have any queries about your contract offer please get in touch with your case officer as soon as possible.

If you wish to accept the contract offer you must promptly send us your signed acceptance, as explained in your contract offer letter. We will then send you an “authority to proceed” letter to confirm that you can start carrying out the works under the contract. You must ensure that any outstanding licences, consents or permissions are in place before carrying out the agreed work.

Note that an agent can only sign a contract acceptance where they have been mandated to do so.

If you wish to request a change to your contract, please get in touch with your case officer or your local RPID or NatureScot office as soon as possible. The Contract Variations guidance has further information on this.

If some or all of the land under your contract is to move to a new individual or business, you must follow the information in the Contract Successions guidance.

There is a separate Claims and Payments guidance with information on how to claim payments under your contract and also the associated Inspections.

You must contact your case officer, local RPID office or NatureScot if funding from another public body or bodies (other than you) is being sought or has been approved in relation to the work agreed to in your contract.

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Agri-Environment Climate Scheme