The Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) is fully supportive of the changes to the cross-compliance penalty regime that will come into effect from 24 October 2022, following the announcement by Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots. It will ensure fairness is applied and that more appropriate financial penalties are given in the event of repeated negligent breaches.
Commenting UFU president David Brown said, “We’re glad that the DAERA Minister has taken the decision to make changes to the cross-compliance penalty scheme and are fully supportive of the new legislation. The UFU never agreed to the old policy that a penalty could be classified as intentional automatically. This approach was totally unfair as many farmers get caught up in the busyness of running the farm business, bringing with it significant pressure, and did not understand the consequences of doing something the wrong way. The regime as it was, was totally rigid and the information and standards that were expected of farmers was not communicated clearly by DAERA.
“These changes to the regime will create flexibility and a simplified penalty scheme that farmers can understand. We fully agree that repeat and intentional serious offences must be punished, but too many farmers were being treated unfairly. They were being handed heavy penalties for breaches that were committed innocently as they went about their day-to-day work with no awareness of the implications.”
