Business guidance

Agriculture & Farming

Access farming grants and capital funding

Capital grants help farmers in England buy equipment and technology and improve infrastructure, separately from Environmental Land Management payments. The Farming Equipment and Technology Fund is the most accessible, and the Farming Recovery Fund opens only after severe weather; never buy or start work before your grant agreement is signed.

Construction & Property

Apply for a species licence from NatureScot

If work in Scotland could disturb, harm or kill a protected species, or damage a breeding site or resting place, you need a NatureScot species licence first, even with planning permission. Scotland also makes reckless disturbance an offence, so check for protected species before you start.

Agriculture & Farming

Apply for Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier

Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier pays for complex environmental land management under agreements of 5 to 20 years. You apply by expression of interest for woodland, agroforestry, species-rich grassland or scheduled monuments, or when Natural England invites you, after pre-application advice agrees your actions.

Construction & Property

Avoid protected species offences in Scotland

Killing, injuring, taking or disturbing a protected animal or wild bird in Scotland is a crime, whether you do it deliberately or recklessly. The worst offences carry up to 5 years in prison. A licence is the lawful route when your work cannot avoid affecting a protected species.

Retail & Consumer Goods

Biocides and Pesticides Authorisation

Get HSE CRD authorisation for biocidal and pesticidal products.

Agriculture & Farming

Check UK drone class mark, Remote ID and registration dates

Check which UK drone rules have applied since 1 January 2026 and which change on 1 January 2028. By then EU C-class drones stop counting as UK classes, more drones need Remote ID, and the General VLOS Certificate is no longer issued. Operator ID and Flyer ID rules stay the same.

Agriculture & Farming

Check which type of agricultural tenancy you have in Scotland

Whether your Scottish farm tenancy falls under the 1991 Act or the 2003 Act depends on when the lease was entered into. That decides how long it lasts, whether it can pass to a family member, and whether the tenant can register a right to buy the land.

Agriculture & Farming

Commercial fishing licence and compliance

Fishing commercially in UK waters needs a vessel licence from the Marine Management Organisation in England or its equivalent elsewhere. No new licences are issued, so you must transfer an existing entitlement that matches your vessel; under-12m vessels in England also need I-VMS tracking.

Agriculture & Farming

Compare ELM schemes to choose the right environmental funding

England's Environmental Land Management schemes pay for different work. The Sustainable Farming Incentive funds three-year farm actions, Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier funds longer agreements on important sites and woodland, and Landscape Recovery backs group projects of at least 500 connected hectares. You can hold more than one if payments never double up.

Agriculture & Farming

Comply with Farming Rules for Water

Since 2 April 2018, the Farming Rules for Water have applied to every farmer and land manager in England, whether or not you receive payments. You must plan each fertiliser and manure application, test cultivated soil at least every 5 years, and avoid spreading near water or on waterlogged or frozen ground.

Agriculture & Farming

Comply with livestock movement standstill periods

When livestock arrive on your holding, a standstill begins during which you cannot move other susceptible animals off it: 6 days after new cattle, sheep or goats, and 20 days for pigs after new pigs arrive. Moves direct to slaughter are exempt, and breaching a standstill is a criminal offence.

Agriculture & Farming

Comply with Nitrate Vulnerable Zone (NVZ) regulations

About 55% of land in England lies in Nitrate Vulnerable Zones, where you must limit livestock manure to a farm average of 170 kg of nitrogen per hectare a year, observe closed spreading periods, store manure adequately and keep records. Breaches can lead to an unlimited fine.

Food, Drink & Hospitality

Convert farm buildings to holiday accommodation

Converting a farm building to holiday accommodation needs planning permission or a permitted development route, then building regulations approval and a fire risk assessment. It also changes how the building is rated and ends Agricultural Relief on it, so settle the planning route before you commit to the work.

Agriculture & Farming

Deer management obligations in Scotland

If you manage land in Scotland with wild deer on it, the Deer (Scotland) Act 1996 requires you to prevent deer damaging farming, forestry and the natural heritage. Male deer have had no close season since 21 October 2023, but female deer are protected for set periods unless NatureScot authorises otherwise.

Agriculture & Farming

Drone spraying job checklist

Check before each drone spraying job that your permissions, people, aircraft, insurance and spray area meet the rules. There are no commercial authorisations for applying pesticides by drone in the UK, so drone application is possible only under an Extrapolated Trials Permit.

Construction & Property

Ecology survey requirements for construction in Scotland

When you need ecological surveys for construction and development projects in Scotland, what types of survey are required, seasonal timing constraints, and how survey results feed into NatureScot licensing and the planning process.

Agriculture & Farming

End an agricultural tenancy in Scotland and claim compensation

To end a 1991 Act agricultural tenancy in Scotland, landlord or tenant must give written notice 1 to 2 years ahead, and a tenant can refer a landlord's notice to the Land Court. When the tenancy ends, written notice of any compensation claim must reach the other side within 2 months.

Agriculture & Farming

Farm machinery safety

Transport and machinery cause most deaths on farms, and PUWER requires every piece of farm machinery to be suitable, maintained and safely guarded, with LOLER covering lifting equipment such as telehandlers. Train operators, keep PTO shafts guarded and follow the age limits for young workers.

Retail & Consumer Goods

Feed, animal transport and animal by-products in Scotland

What a Scottish feed merchant, livestock haulier, dealer, abattoir supplier or farm must do to register as a feed business with Food Standards Scotland, get a transporter authorisation for animal journeys, and collect and dispose of animal by-products and fallen stock. Scotland has its own regulations and its own enforcers for each.

Agriculture & Farming

Find out which farm environmental funding is open to you

The Sustainable Farming Incentive's 2026 offer is closed to new applications, and existing agreements run on their own terms. Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier takes expressions of interest and invitations. Capital Grants 2026 is closed, and Defra said in October 2026 it is exploring alternatives to first come, first served for 2027.

Agriculture & Farming

Fish for salmon in Scotland as a business

What a business that fishes for salmon, sells fishing or guides anglers in Scotland must have and do. Scotland has no national salmon licence. The law turns on holding the fishing right or having the proprietor's written permission, then using a permitted method and keeping to the close times and the conservation rules for your river.

Agriculture & Farming

Follow farm animal welfare rules in Scotland

If you keep cattle, pigs or poultry in Scotland, the Welfare of Farmed Animals (Scotland) Regulations 2010 set minimum standards for inspection, housing, space, feed, water and records. Some rules apply to every farmed animal and others to each species.

Agriculture & Farming

Follow the nitrate vulnerable zone rules in Scotland

If any part of your farm in Scotland lies in a nitrate vulnerable zone, the action programme rules apply to the whole farm. You must plan fertiliser and manure use each year, stay within nitrogen limits, respect closed periods and keep records for inspection.

Agriculture & Farming

Forestry operations, consents and timber rules

Most tree felling needs a felling licence, and large planting, deforestation or forest road schemes may need EIA consent before work starts. Work on a tree with a Tree Preservation Order needs council consent, and destroying one carries an unlimited fine.

Agriculture & Farming

Get a licence to fish fresh water commercially

To catch fish in rivers, lakes or canals with nets, traps or other instruments, you need written permission from the environment regulator for the instruments, site and dates. Eel fishing needs its own authorisation, and since 1 January 2026 permission to fish for elvers has been given only for approved purposes.

Food, Drink & Hospitality

Get authorisation for a water activity in Scotland (EASR)

In Scotland, any activity affecting surface water or groundwater, such as abstraction, engineering or discharges, needs SEPA authorisation, and doing it without one is a criminal offence. SEPA decides which of four risk-based tiers your activity falls into, from general binding rules to a permit.

Agriculture & Farming

Get authorised as a fish or shellfish farm in Scotland

Before you farm fish or shellfish in Scotland, you must be authorised as an aquaculture production business by the Fish Health Inspectorate. Once you are running, you must report suspected disease and escapes at once, move only healthy stock and keep farm records.

Agriculture & Farming

Get authorised to run a fish or shellfish farm

Before you set up a fish, mollusc or crustacean farm, you must be authorised by the Fish Health Inspectorate. A farm at sea also needs a marine licence and a seabed lease, live shellfish can only come from classified production areas, and a farm on land may need water abstraction and discharge permits.

Food, Drink & Hospitality

Get consent for work on an SSSI

If you own or occupy land in a Site of Special Scientific Interest, you must get written consent from Natural England before carrying out any operation on the site's list. Without a decision in 4 months you can treat it as refused and appeal. Working without consent risks an unlimited fine.

Agriculture & Farming

Get pesticide certificates and have your sprayer tested

Everyone who applies a professional pesticide must hold a certificate of competence for the equipment they use, and anyone who buys one must make sure it goes to a certificate holder. Most spray equipment must be inspected within five years of purchase, then every three or six years.

Agriculture & Farming

Get seed certified before you market it

If your business markets, packs or processes the seed of the main agricultural crops or vegetables, you need a licence from APHA, and the seed must be certified before you market it. Only varieties on the Great Britain or Northern Ireland variety lists can be certified.

Food, Drink & Hospitality

Host weddings and events on your farm

Hosting weddings or events in farm buildings needs planning permission for the change of use, because agricultural permitted development rights do not cover event use. You also need alcohol and entertainment licensing, a fire risk assessment, event insurance and food safety arrangements if you provide catering.

Agriculture & Farming

Identify and tag sheep and goats

Every sheep and goat in England must carry approved ear tags before its tagging deadline or before it leaves your holding: within 6 months of birth for indoor-reared sheep and 9 months for outdoor-reared. Breeding sheep need two tags, one electronic; get a flock or herd mark first.

Agriculture & Farming

Identify pigs before you move them

Before any pig leaves your holding in England, you must mark it with your herd mark using an ear tag, an ear tattoo or slap marks on both shoulders. Pigs going for breeding, to shows or abroad also need a unique number.

Agriculture & Farming

Install renewable energy on your farm

Planning rules for farm renewables depend on the technology and scale: rooftop solar on farm buildings may be permitted development, but ground-mounted solar needs full planning permission and faces closer scrutiny on the best agricultural land. The Feed-in Tariff has closed, so income now comes from savings and Smart Export Guarantee payments.

Agriculture & Farming

Join the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway

The Animal Health and Welfare Pathway pays livestock keepers in England for a vet to visit, test for disease and review biosecurity, once every 10 months for each eligible species. You must complete this annual review before you can claim funded follow-up work on endemic diseases.

Agriculture & Farming

Keep children safe on farms

Children under 13 must never ride on or drive a tractor, self-propelled farm machine or ATV at work, and the law does not exempt parents. Children of 13 to 15 may use only some machines, trained and supervised. Give young children a fenced play area away from work.

Agriculture & Farming

Keep holding registers for livestock

If you keep cattle, sheep, goats, pigs or deer in England, you must keep a holding register for each holding and record movements within 36 hours. Sheep, goat and pig keepers also make an annual count, and cattle records are kept for 10 years. APHA or your local authority can inspect the register.

Agriculture & Farming

Keep people safe on your farm

Farming is among Britain's riskiest industries, and the law covers you whether you employ staff or work alone. Assess the risks, write down your findings and a health and safety policy if you employ five or more people, control the main causes of death, provide first aid and report serious injuries to HSE.

Retail & Consumer Goods

Licences for dog boarding, day care and other pet care work

Usually yes in England if you board dogs or cats or run dog day care: you need an animal activity licence from your council. Grooming and dog walking are outside the licensing scheme unless the service amounts to dog day care, but local licences, permits and dog limits can apply.

Agriculture & Farming

Manage beavers on your farm in Scotland

Beavers in Scotland are a European protected species, so you need a licence before you remove a dam, trap a beaver or take any other action that harms or disturbs one. A licence to prevent serious damage to crops, livestock, timber or property is granted only when nothing less harmful would work.

Food, Drink & Hospitality

Manage public access on your open access land

If your land is mapped as open access land, people can walk on it without asking, but cultivated fields, buildings and land near homes are excepted. You owe walkers less duty over natural features, can close land for up to 28 days a year, and must not put up misleading signs.

Construction & Property

Managing land within an SSSI in Scotland

If you own or manage land within a Site of Special Scientific Interest in Scotland, you must get NatureScot's written consent before carrying out any operation on the site's Operations Requiring Consent list. Working without consent is a criminal offence, and if NatureScot does not decide within 4 months, consent is treated as refused.

Agriculture & Farming

Meet bovine TB testing requirements for cattle

Test your herd for bovine TB as often as your risk area requires: every 6 months in England's High Risk Area, every 4 years in the Low Risk Area. Overdue tests stop you moving cattle, and breaking the testing or reactor rules can cut your compensation by up to 95%.

Agriculture & Farming

Meet cattle welfare requirements

If you keep cattle in England, the Animal Welfare Act 2006 and the Welfare of Farmed Animals (England) Regulations 2007 require you to meet their welfare needs and follow set standards for housing, feeding and management. Procedures such as disbudding and castration have age limits and anaesthetic rules, and breaches are criminal offences.

Agriculture & Farming

Meet cross compliance for Scottish farm support

If you claim Scottish Government farm support, you must meet the cross compliance rules on all your land for the whole year. A breach of the animal, nitrate or land management rules can reduce or stop your payments, even if the breach is not prosecuted.

Agriculture & Farming

Meet pig welfare requirements on your farm

Anyone keeping pigs in England, from a commercial unit to a single pet pig, must meet their welfare needs under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 and Schedule 8 of the Welfare of Farmed Animals Regulations. Get a CPH number and a herd mark before your first pigs arrive.

Agriculture & Farming

Meet poultry welfare requirements

Every poultry keeper in Great Britain, even with a single bird, must register with the Animal and Plant Health Agency and meet the birds' welfare needs. Flocks of 350 or more laying hens or 500 or more broilers face extra rules, including salmonella testing and stocking density records.

Agriculture & Farming

Meet sheep welfare requirements on your farm

If you keep sheep, the Animal Welfare Act 2006 requires you to meet their five welfare needs, and you must have access to and follow the sheep welfare code. Courts can treat ignoring the code as evidence of a breach, and the worst offences carry up to 5 years in prison.

Agriculture & Farming

Meet your sea fishing vessel duties

Every British vessel that fishes commercially in UK waters needs a fishing vessel licence, must be registered, and must meet MCA safety standards. Anyone buying or selling fish on first sale must also register with the MMO and submit sales notes.

Agriculture & Farming

Navigate farm assurance schemes

Farm assurance schemes such as Red Tractor, RSPCA Assured, Soil Association Organic and LEAF Marque are voluntary and privately run, but major retailers increasingly require certification before they will buy. Each adds standards and audits on top of the legal baseline for welfare, medicines, water and food safety.

Agriculture & Farming

Open, Specific and Certified drone categories explained

Lower-risk drone flights in the Open category need no CAA permission, but any job that breaks its weight, height or line-of-sight limits needs an Operational Authorisation first. Crop spraying by drone has no commercial authorisation in the UK and is allowed only under HSE trial permits.

Retail & Consumer Goods

Plant passports for selling plants and seeds online

Usually yes, if you sell plants or listed seeds as a business online, by phone or by post, even to a home gardener. Selling in person to the public needs no passport.

Agriculture & Farming

Prepare for a farm inspection

Farm inspectors from the Rural Payments Agency, the Environment Agency, the Animal and Plant Health Agency and local authorities usually give notice, though complaint visits can be unannounced. Keep your livestock, pesticide, nutrient and scheme records complete and to hand, and answer any request for evidence promptly.

Agriculture & Farming

Prepare for the end of BPS delinked payments

Delinked payments, which replaced the Basic Payment Scheme in England, need no application but are cut by 98% on the first £30,000 and 100% above it for 2026 and 2027. The last payments are for 2027, so plan farm income without them from 2028.

Agriculture & Farming

Prevent wildlife crime on a shooting estate in Scotland

If you hold or manage shooting rights in Scotland, you can be convicted of a wild bird offence committed by your gamekeeper or agent, even if you took no part in it. Your defence is to show you did not know and took all reasonable steps to prevent it.

Agriculture & Farming

Protect your livestock from disease with biosecurity

Good biosecurity stops disease reaching your farm and spreading around it. Limit how often people, vehicles and equipment come near your animals, clean and disinfect anything that does, keep new stock apart and check your animals every day so you spot problems early.

Agriculture & Farming

Register a vineyard and get approval to make wine for sale

If you plant vines on 0.1 hectare or more, or grow them commercially, you must register the vineyard with the Food Standards Agency within six months of planting. Before you make wine for sale, you need an alcoholic products producer approval from HMRC.

Agriculture & Farming

Register land to keep livestock

Before you keep any livestock, even a single pet animal, you must register the land with the Rural Payments Agency and get a County Parish Holding number. Each separate site needs its own number, you cannot order ear tags without one, and registration takes about 10 working days.

Agriculture & Farming

Register to buy or sell first-sale fish in Scotland

If you buy fish straight from a fishing boat in Scotland, or sell it at auction, you must be registered with the Scottish Ministers first. You then send a sales note for each purchase or sale and keep records that a sea-fishery officer can inspect.

Agriculture & Farming

Report a suspected notifiable animal disease

If you suspect a notifiable disease such as foot and mouth, bird flu or swine fever in your animals, you must report it to the Animal and Plant Health Agency straight away, even if the signs are mild. Not reporting is an offence, and a vet will tell you which restrictions to follow.

Agriculture & Farming

Report livestock movements

When you move cattle, sheep, goats, pigs or deer on or off your holding, you must report it to the system for that species: BCMS for cattle, the Livestock Information Service for sheep, goats and deer, and eAML2 for pigs. Most reports are due within 3 days of the animals arriving.

Agriculture & Farming

Review the rent on an agricultural tenancy in Scotland

Either landlord or tenant can start a rent review on a Scottish agricultural tenancy by written notice, and the Land Court sets the rent if you cannot agree. The new rent is an open-market rent, with improvements the tenant paid for left out, and reviews come no more than once every 3 years.

Agriculture & Farming

Sell eggs, honey and produce from home or the farm gate

Usually yes, if you register your birds with APHA. You can sell ungraded eggs from your gate or door to door, and honey with a label showing at least its name, origin and net weight.

Food, Drink & Hospitality

Set up camping or glamping on your farm

In England, you can run tent camping on farmland for up to 60 days a year, with no more than 50 pitches, without planning permission, if you notify the council first and keep records. Glamping pods and static caravans need planning permission, and caravan sites also need a site licence from the council.

Agriculture & Farming

Set up equestrian or livery services on your farm

Keeping horses at livery needs no licence, but hiring out horses for riding or instruction needs one from your council. Planning permission is often needed for stables, arenas and conversions. VAT depends on the package: stabling you let exclusively is exempt unless you opt to tax, and lessons and horse hire are standard-rated.

Agriculture & Farming

Spray crops with drones

No pesticide has a commercial authorisation for drone application in the UK, so you can spray by drone only under an HSE Extrapolated Trials Permit. Even then you need CAA permission to fly, an aerial application certificate, qualified operators, a tested sprayer and an HSE Aerial Spraying Permit for each job.

Agriculture & Farming

Store slurry, silage and fuel oil safely on your farm

If you keep silage, slurry or more than 1,500 litres of agricultural fuel oil on a farm in England, the SSAFO Regulations set how stores must be built and kept. New or substantially changed stores must be at least 10 metres from water and notified to the Environment Agency 14 days ahead.

Agriculture & Farming

Tag cattle and get cattle passports

Every calf born in England or Wales must have two official ear tags, fitted within strict deadlines, and its birth registered with the British Cattle Movement Service to get a passport. Miss the passport deadline and the animal cannot enter the food chain.

Agriculture & Farming

Tag farmed deer before you move them

If you keep deer behind deer-proof fencing in England, each animal must carry an ear tag or tattoo with your herd mark before it leaves your holding or is tested for TB, and you must report its movements.

Agriculture & Farming

Tag, register and report cattle movements in Scotland

If you keep cattle in Scotland, you must tag every calf, register its birth with ScotEID to get a passport, keep a holding register and report every movement on or off your holding. Late or missing records can stop animals moving and cut your farm support.

Agriculture & Farming

Understand farm rules after cross-compliance ended

The rules cross-compliance checked still apply to every farm in England, whether or not you claim a payment. The Environment Agency, Rural Payments Agency, Natural England, the Animal and Plant Health Agency and councils enforce them, usually with advice first and notices or prosecution if that fails.

Construction & Property

Understanding nature conservation law in Scotland

Scotland's nature conservation law is devolved and in places stricter than England's: species offences can be committed recklessly, not just deliberately. NatureScot is the single regulator, Natura sites carry the strongest protection, and NPF4 requires development to contribute to biodiversity.

Agriculture & Farming

Understanding nature conservation law on farmland in England

Nature conservation law reaches ordinary farming in England through designated sites, protected species and hedgerows. On a Site of Special Scientific Interest you need Natural England's consent for listed operations, disturbing protected species usually needs a licence, and you must not cut hedgerows between 1 March and 31 August.

Agriculture & Farming

Understanding the Water Framework Directive for businesses

If your business abstracts water, discharges to rivers or groundwater, or works in or near a watercourse, the Water Framework Directive shapes your permits. Regulators must refuse or condition any permit that would let a water body fall a status class, and each part of the UK applies it through its own regulations.

Agriculture & Farming

Understand Landscape Recovery funding for large-scale environmental projects

Landscape Recovery funds large, long-term projects in England that change how land is used, typically over at least 500 hectares and for 20 years or more. It is closed to new entrants and unsuited to most individual farms, which are better served by the other Environmental Land Management schemes.

Food, Drink & Hospitality

Welfare at the time of killing in Wales and Northern Ireland

What a slaughterhouse or other business that kills animals must do in Wales and in Northern Ireland. Each nation has its own 2014 Regulations enforcing Regulation (EC) No 1099/2009, its own competent authority, its own certificate rules and its own CCTV Regulations, with different dates.

Construction & Property

Wildlife management and muirburn licensing in Scotland

The Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024 bans glue traps, replaces snares with regulated cable restraints and will require a NatureScot licence for muirburn, with its provisions commenced in stages. Since 22 July 2024, shooting red grouse has required a licence covering the land.

Tax & Finance

Check if you need to register for VAT

You must register for VAT when your taxable turnover passes the registration threshold in any rolling 12 months, or when you expect it to pass the threshold within the next 30 days alone. Under the first test, register within 30 days of the end of the month. Late registration brings penalties and backdated VAT.

Compliance & Legal

File your confirmation statement

File a confirmation statement every 12 months, within 14 days after your review period ends. Filing late is a criminal offence for the company and its officers.

Premises & Operations

Meet your business waste duty of care

Every business that produces, stores or disposes of waste has a duty of care under section 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, and stays responsible after it hands the waste on. Use only registered waste carriers, complete waste transfer notes correctly, and follow the stricter rules for hazardous waste.

Compliance & Legal

Verify your identity for Companies House as a director or PSC

Yes, if you are an individual director or PSC of a UK company, or an individual director of an overseas company registered in the UK. Corporate directors and officers of corporate PSCs are not yet required to verify. The transition for existing directors and PSCs ends on 17 November 2026.