New rules surrounding the transfer of subsidy entitlements are being scrutinised by government following lobbying by the Scottish Tenant Farmers Association (STFA).
The tenants body has claimed victory for a “U-turn” on the rules which impose a 50% siphon on entitlements when they are transferred without land in cases involving the assignation or succession of a tenancy.
European regulations allow member states to siphon this money to put into the National Reserve.
According to the STFA, government has agreed not to impose the siphon in cases when a tenancy is transferred by assignation or succession to a new tenant. This follows the submission of legal opinion, commissioned by the STFA, to government.
STFA chairman Christopher Nicholson said: “The Scottish Government’s interpretation of the rules, which only came to light by chance, could have been devastating to many tenants who have just, or who are about to pass their tenancies to the next generation.
“Fortunately this mistake has been spotted in time and can now be corrected so tenants who have recently taken over a family tenancy can be reassured that they will not lose half of their single farm payment.”
Leading agricultural lawyer Hamish Lean, of Stronachs, who was part of the government’s agricultural holdings legislation review group, was also quick to claim victory over the supposed rule change.
“It was very satisfying to have helped the STFA achieve this victory for commonsense in the interpretation of the Basic Payment rules,” said Mr Lean.
“It’s also an object lesson in not taking Scottish Government guidelines at face value. It is always the underlying European Regulations which set out the law and which must be referred to for the definitive answer.”
However, despite these cries of victory, the Scottish Government says it has not changed its policy.
A government spokeswoman last night said: “The so-called ‘siphon’ is one of the tools in the new Cap for discouraging slipper farming, which STFA has agreed is an issue that has to be tackled. Our policy has not changed, but the STFA has drawn to our attention a potential issue with the fine technical detail of its implementation and, although these would affect only a very few individual cases, we recognise that it is important to address this.”
She said government was looking into this matter and if any clarification of the rules was required it would let farmers know.