In relation to the details provided the beneficiary applied for the Basic Payment Scheme on the 28th of February 2022 and undertook to comply with the Scheme Terms and Conditions along with the Cross Compliance requirements which includes the Nitrates Regulations. The beneficiary had a Cross Compliance inspection on the 19th December 2022, and a number of non-compliances were found including the Nitrates Regulations and a 5% sanction was applied to the beneficiary’s area-based payments as conveyed to him on the 13th of March 2023.
As part of that inspection the beneficiary was required to submit certain records by the 31st March 2023. These records required detailed examination by a qualified officer within my Department and it was found that the maximum Nitrogen fertiliser limits had been exceeded and the beneficiary was notified of this on the 5th June 2026 by way of a notice form and that a possible sanction may apply. In addition, he was invited to submit any additional information on this aspect of the inspection to my Department within 14 days.
While I accept that the notification of this non-compliance was three and a half years after the initial inspection there is no time limit by when these records checks must be completed by but importantly where a non-compliance is identified that any sanction to be applied is applied in the year of occurrence, rather than the year in which the non-compliance was detected so in this case any potential sanction is applied to the 2022 scheme payments rather than 2026.
On further examining the case I can confirm that as the beneficiary had already received a 5% sanction in respect of 2022 and this is the maximum negligence sanction that can be applied under Cross Compliance this further non-compliance will not incur any additional monetary sanction.
The beneficiary will receive an additional formal decision in due course which will quantify the exact sanction for this particular breach, and he can seek a review of that decision, but no additional monetary sanctions will be applied in respect of his 2022 payments.
In addition, I would like to highlight the need for beneficiaries to adhere to the Nitrates Regulations at all time and ensure that our waters are protected from sources of pollution.
