GovWire

The role of a Rural Payments Agency (RPA) field officer

RPA field officers may carry out site visits for some Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) agreement holders each year. This is to check:

• youre complying with your SFI agreements terms and conditions, so that we can demonstrate that the public money we spend has resulted in the intended actions
• youve done whats required in each SFI action youve chosen in a way that could reasonably be expected to achieve its aim

Their role is to:

• provide you with advice and guidance to help you achieve better outcomes from your SFI agreement
• help you to comply with the requirements of your agreement
• respond in cases where there are serious breaches, to protect the overall integrity of the scheme

Read the information about checking youre complying with your SFI agreement to find out more about how much notice youll get of a site visit.

How to prepare for a site visit

To get prepared for a site visit, make sure you have:

• your agreement document
• records to show how youve completed each SFI action in your SFI agreement
• receipts, invoices or other supporting information together and sorted by date

Having this information to hand will save time during the site visit.

Read the details of the SFI actions to find out what evidence to keep for each SFI action.

What happens during a site visit

At a site visit, the RPA field officer will:

• confirm the SFI agreement they need to check
• discuss a schedule for the visit and tell you how long its likely to take
• explain what they need to check
• discuss with you what evidence they may need to see

The RPA field officer will check:

• youve completed the SFI actions in your SFI agreement and that youve done them in a way that could reasonably be expected to meet each actions aim
• the details and location of any rotational SFI actions
• records, invoices and other evidence, as relevant
• if there are any changes to the registered land details on your digital maps, including land cover and permanent boundaries
• the mandatory scheme requirements as set out in the SFI scheme information are being met

Checking the SFI actions have been completed

To check youve completed the SFI actions in your SFI agreement, the RPA field officer will:

• walk the land thats in your SFI agreement
• record observations
• take photographs to support their observations
• take measurements of the areas in the SFI actions and any changes to the registered land details on your digital maps using GPS devices or a tape measure

They will discuss their measurements with you either:

• there and then if youre accompanying them
• at the end of their visit, during the review of their observations

What happens when the site visit is completed

When the RPA field officer has completed their site visit, theyll discuss their findings with you. This will either happen at the end of their visit or theyll arrange a convenient time with you to have a telephone call.

Its important that you have this conversation with them as theyll explain:

• any differences between whats required under your SFI agreement and what they found during the site visit
• if the registered land details on your digital maps need to be updated, such as changes to permanent boundaries

If youre concerned about what the RPA field officer has found during their site visit:

• they may be able to go back to the area of land and explain their observations
• you then have the opportunity to discuss the findings
• this can be recorded on the site visit report form

Once the RPA field officer has discussed what theyve found with you, theyll provide guidance, support and signposting to more information to help you, where required. This does not mean that theyll ignore breaches of your SFI agreement.

Follow up visit

An RPA field officer may visit again to check seasonal SFI actions that could not be seen during their first site visit.

RPA field officers report

Well send you a copy of the field officers report once theyve completed any checks and updates to the registered land details on your digital maps have been completed.

Confirming the outcome of the site visit

Well assess the field officers report on the site visit and write to you to confirm the outcome. This may include:

• encouraging you to adopt different management activities to help meet your SFI agreements requirements
• a reduction to your payment
• an amendment to your SFI agreement

You should not try to draw conclusions about the possible outcome of the site visit before you receive written confirmation from us.

We aim to complete our assessment as quickly as possible so we can pay you for the affected agreement year. We may need to reduce your payment or recover money already paid to you. If this is the case, well explain the reasons for reducing or recovering payments.