Single Payment Scheme - Introduction
The Single Payment Scheme (SPS) is our main scheme for giving financial support for England’s farming community. It is a scheme that rewards you for maintaining your land and the environment in Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition (GAEC).
In England we introduced SPS on 1 January 2005 under EC Council Regulation 1782/2003; it replaces most existing crop and livestock payments.
In 2005, we gave one ‘entitlement’ for each hectare of eligible land. These entitlements give you the right to claim payment. We use entitlements to work out how much to pay you.
SPS breaks the link between production and support. Instead, you are asked to show that you are keeping your land in Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition (GAEC) and are complying with a number of specified legal requirements, which relate to:
- the environment,
- the public,
- plant health and
- animal health and welfare.
We call meeting these rules ‘
Cross Compliance’.
Page published: 19 April 2013