CAP Payments

EC legislation requires each member State to publish details of recipients of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) payments and to update this each year. Defra has done this on one website which covers recipients paid by RPA, as well as those paid by paying agencies in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The website (http://cap-payments.defra.gov.uk/Default.aspx) has been updated with information about CAP payments made to ‘legal persons’.

The payments shown will have been made between 16 October 2008 and 15 October 2010 under all CAP schemes. EU legislation requires each Member State to publish CAP payment information relating to ‘legal’ persons on a single website.

‘Legal persons’ includes:

registered companies (i.e. private companies limited by shares or by guarantee, private unlimited companies and public limited companies)
other corporations (e.g. bodies incorporated by statute or Royal Charter)
partnerships with separate legal personality (i.e. Limited Liability Partnerships and partnerships under Scots law)
trusts/trustees
groups/associations of legal persons (e.g. a joint venture) without separate legal personality.

In accordance with the regulations CAP payment information relating to ‘natural persons’ (e.g. sole traders and partnerships/other groups without separate legal personality) will not be published.

The Commission intends to review the legislation in the longer-term, taking account of a judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union in November 2010. The UK will be pressing the Commission to bring forward new legislation that will maximise transparency and openness in the use of EU funds. The UK has consistently supported the provision of information relating to payments under the CAP.

Page published: 5 August 2011