Forestry Carbon Sequestration Fund payments: EIR release

Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.


Information requested

I refer to a previous FOI response, reference 202400396614, that provided rural payment information.

For this FOI I refer specifically to the payment commitments to the Forestry Carbon Sequestration Fund for the year 2023 and exclude the FGS payment commitment.

When I mean payment commitment, these are the amounts that could be paid if the terms of the contract is met. The figures provided by the FOI responses do not make it clear what has actually been paid.

A more recent FOI response, reference 202400432196 claimed that 'there was no change to the payment information' in relation to the previous FOI response (reference 202400396614).

I would like to make a new FOI request - this request is not duplicating the previous requests that resulted in FOI responses 202400396614 and 202400432196.

 

Year

 

 

Scheme

2021

2022

2023

BPS

£39,623.40

£40,825.69

£77,494.32

Under Declaration Penalty

Yes

Yes

None

Over Declaration Penalty

Yes

None

Yes

GR

£16,926.38

£17,493.09

£36,095.77

Under Declaration Penalty

Yes

Yes

None

FGS (no penalties)

 

 

£54,210.64

AECS - Moorland Management (no penalties)

£2,977.20

 

 

LFASS

£3,505.53

£3,489.54

£3,490.06

Under Declaration Penalty

Yes

Yes

None

TOTAL

£63,032.51

£61,808.32

£171,290.79

Of the payment commitments for the 2023 year only (excluding the FGS payment commitment):

1. Please provide another column to the right of the 2023 column to say what was actually paid for each scheme in 2023 (as opposed to what the contract commitment at the time was) and when these payments were made - this is not required for the FGS contract commitment.

2. Please provide the complete contract or contracts for the schemes comprising all these payment commitments for the 2023 year - this is not required for the FGS contract commitment.

3. For any of these schemes, has the RPID directorate been made aware of any potential breaches of contract for the 2023 year since the last FOI response in October 2024 (ref 202400432196)?

4. Has the RPID determined if there have been any breaches of contract in relation to these contracts for the 2023 year?

5. In relation to point 1 above, of the payments made, please could you clarify if RPID asked for any of these payments to be returned and/or if penalties were applied, and if they were returned, and/or penalties applied,
please provide the value of these payments and/or penalties for each scheme in an additional column next to the column suggested in point 1 above.

6. How many inspections of the Stobo estate (see the land parcels below for actual locations) did RPID staff carry out for 2023 and what dates were these inspections carried out?

7. Please provide the reports relating to any inspections for the 2023 year.

8. Please ensure that all the requested contracts are provided and they include the following land parcels:

LPID (Land Parcel ID)

NT 16160/38062

NT/14112/37828

NT/14719/37032

NT/14943/37497

NT/15192/37595

NT/15270/37184

NT/16569/37948

NT/14112/37828

NT/15192/37595

NT/15270/37184

NT 16160/38062

Response

As the information you have requested is 'environmental information' for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

1. Please provide another column to the right of the 2023 column to say what was actually paid for each scheme in 2023 (as opposed to what the contract commitment at the time was) and when these payments were made - this is not required for the FGS contract commitment.

The payment figures detailed in the 2023 column for BPS, Greening and LFASS are the actual amounts paid to the business, as explained in point 2 these schemes are not subject to contract commitments. A column has been added to include the date of payment.

 

Year

 

 

 

2023 date paid *

Penalty amount

Scheme

2021

2022

2023

 

 

BPS

£39,623.40

£40,825.69

£77,494.32

30/11/2023

£317.37

Under Declaration Penalty

Yes

Yes

None

 

 

Over Declaration Penalty

Yes

None

Yes

 

 

GR

£16,926.38

£17,493.09

£36,095.77

30/11/2023

 

Under Declaration Penalty

Yes

Yes

None

 

 

FGS (no penalties)

 

 

£54,210.64

 

 

AECS - Moorland Management (no penalties)

£2,977.20

 

 

 

 

LFASS

£3,505.53

£3,489.54

£3,490.06

19/01/2024

 

Under Declaration Penalty

Yes

Yes

None

 

 

TOTAL

£63,032.51

£61,808.32

£171,290.79

 

 

* see answer 2.

2. Please provide the complete contract or contracts for the schemes comprising all these payment commitments for the 2023 year - this is not required for the FGS contract commitment.

For scheme year 2023 payments were made for the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS), including Greening and the Less Favoured Area Support Scheme (LFASS). BPS is a support payment for eligible farmers and crofters to supplement their main business income. LFASS provides essential income support to eligible farming businesses in remote and constrained rural areas. There are no contract agreements for BPS and LFASS, applicants must meet the scheme requirements in order to receive BPS or LFASS support payments. Further information about this is available on the Rural Payments and Services website.

There was no contract in place for the Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS) for 2023.

3. For any of these schemes, has the RPID directorate been made aware of any potential breaches of contract for the 2023 year since the last FOI response in October 2024 (ref 202400432196)?

Not applicable. As explained, BPS, Greening and LFASS applicants are not subject to contracts and there was no contract in place for AECS in 2023.

4. Has the RPID determined if there have been any breaches of contract in relation to these contracts for the 2023 year?

Not applicable, see point 3.

5. In relation to point 1 above, of the payments made, please could you clarify if RPID asked for any of these payments to be returned and/or if penalties were applied, and if they were returned, and/or penalties applied,
please provide the value of these payments and/or penalties for each scheme in an additional column next to the column suggested in point 1 above.

A penalty was applied to BPS before payments. The value is detailed in the additional column as requested.

6. How many inspections of the Stobo estate (see the land parcels below for actual locations) did RPID staff carry out for 2023 and what dates were these inspections carried out?

None.

7. Please provide the reports relating to any inspections for the 2023 year.

Not applicable, see point 6.

8. Please ensure that all the requested contracts are provided and they include the following land parcels:

LPID (Land Parcel ID)

NT 16160/38062

NT/14112/37828

NT/14719/37032

NT/14943/37497

NT/15192/37595

NT/15270/37184

NT/16569/37948

NT/14112/37828

NT/15192/37595

NT/15270/37184

NT 16160/38062

As per 2. no contracts are in place.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

Contact

Please quote the FOI reference
Central Correspondence Unit
Email: contactus@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000

The Scottish Government
St Andrew's House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG

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