The Less Favoured Area Support Scheme (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2019

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend The Less Favoured Area Support Scheme (Scotland) Regulations 2010 (“the principal Regulations”) to comply with Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council(1) (“the Rural Development Regulation”) (as last amended by Regulation 2019/288 of the European Parliament and of the Council(2)).

Regulations 2, 3, 6, 7 and 8 amend the principal Regulations to make provision in Scotland for the administration of the less favoured area support (“LFAS”) scheme under the Rural Development Regulation for scheme years 2019 and 2020. Article 31 of the Rural Development Regulation requires that payments under the LFAS scheme are reduced progressively until 2020. In particular, regulation 8 updates the payment rates of LFAS payments for scheme years 2019 and 2020 by inserting a new table into schedule 5 of the principal Regulations reducing the rate for scheme year 2019 to 80% of the previous rate and to 40% of the previous rate for scheme year 2020 (taking account of €25 per hectare minimum payment rate as permitted by the Rural Development Regulation).

Article 31(4) of the Rural Development Regulation also requires a reduction in payment under LFAS above a threshold level of area per holding. In order to achieve this, an additional payment calculation has been introduced by virtue of regulations 4 and 5 of these Regulations which inserts new regulation 8A into the principal Regulations. The eligible land that an applicant has over 4000 hectares will be reduced by 10% for the purposes of calculating LFAS. The eligible land an applicant has over 10,000 hectares will be reduced by 25%. The relevant reduction is apportioned across each grazing category (new regulation 8A(3)).

A business and regulatory impact assessment (BRIA) has been prepared for these Regulations and will be placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre. Copies may be obtained from the Scottish Government Directorate for Agriculture and Rural Economy, Saughton House, Broomhouse Drive, Edinburgh, EH11 3XD.

(1)

OJ L. 347 20.12.2013, p487.

(2)

OJ L. 53/14 22.2.2019.