There will be no change in Welsh support schemes until after 2023. This was announced by Rural Affairs Minister, Lesley Griffiths in the Welsh Government’s Policy Response to the Consultation on the Agriculture White Paper which closed in March this year (see December 2020 Bulletin for details).
The announcement on the continuation of current schemes includes;
- the Basic Payment Scheme will continue until 2023 (with the caveat from the Welsh Government that sufficient funding needs to be provided by the UK Government in the upcoming Spending Review). Although not completely clear, we take this to mean that the usual BPS claim will be made in May 2023 with a payment in autumn/winter 2023.
- existing Glastir Advanced, Commons and Organic contracts will be extended until December 2023. All existing eligible contract holders will be offered an extension via their RPW on-line accounts.
- the Farming Connect Programme will be extended to March 2023 with £7m of funding)
The Minister also set out a timetable for how new policy arrangements are to be taken forward over the next few years;
- first half of 2022: the draft Agriculture Bill will be published. This will give the Government powers to enact a new farm policy. The legislation will also make changes to the Agricultural Holdings Act 1986 and set the legal framework for new National Minimum Standards which will replace cross-compliance.
- first half of 2022: alongside the Agriculture Bill a draft outline of the Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS) will be published. This will set out details of the structure of the scheme and the actions that farmers might be expected to take.
- summer 2022: a further round of ‘co-design’ on the SFS will commence, to refine the scheme
- 2022: a range of ‘interventions’ are promised to help farmers prepare for the SFS. There are no details of what these might encompass. Also, a new scheme will be launched to fund woodland creation. This will eventually form part of the SFS.
- spring 2023: the final version of the SFS should be published along with a consultation. This will contain details of the proposed transition from the BPS (i.e. phasing). The Policy document specifically states there will be a ‘multi-year’ transition from the BPS to the SFS.
- 2024: there will be an outreach programme to prepare farmers for the launch of the SFS. This will include commencing farm Sustainability Reviews.
- 2025: the SFS will open in January 2025. This does rather beg the question of what happens in 2024 – the BPS will continue in its present form including the 2023 year, but there then appears to be a gap where the BPS is not guaranteed but the SFS hasn’t started. The BPS may well continue in much the same way for 2024 but the Welsh Government may not want to have committed to this as the funding cannot be guaranteed this far in advance. Alternatively, the first BPS deductions might start in 2024 to generate a fund of money to be spent on the SFS – much as the English BPS is currently being phased-out without ELMs yet being in place.
Further detail on the announcement can be found at – https://gov.wales/written-statement-agriculture-wales-white-paper-summary-responses-and-welsh-government-policy