Understand farm rules after cross-compliance ended

These rules are for England.

Cross-compliance was a set of rules that farmers who claimed rural payments between 2005 and 2023 had to follow. It ended at midnight on 31 December 2023. The environmental, animal health and welfare law behind it did not end: it applies to every farm in England, and a different body enforces each part. GOV.UK groups the rules by farming activity, which makes it quicker to find the ones that apply to you.

The rules that still apply and who checks them

Animal welfare law protects every farm animal. Anyone who breaches it can be banned from owning animals, fined without limit or sent to prison for up to 5 years. Livestock identification and movement reporting rules apply species by species, and you must report notifiable diseases. If your land is in a nitrate vulnerable zone, extra limits on nitrogen and closed periods apply as well.

Water and soil

The Farming Rules for Water apply to anyone with custody or control of agricultural land, including tenants. They also apply in a nitrate vulnerable zone.

An inspector may ask to see soil test results, your plan for each application, your fertiliser records, the location of your manure stores and records of the weather forecast. The Environment Agency usually gives advice and agrees a timescale for changes first. It can prosecute where there is pollution or a significant risk of it.

Hedgerows

The cutting and buffer strip rules apply to a hedgerow on or next to agricultural land if it is at least 20 metres long, or shorter but meeting another hedgerow at each end. Land used for keeping horses and ponies counts as agricultural for these rules.

You may cut or trim between 1 March and 31 August in limited cases, including where the hedgerow overhangs a highway or footpath and obstructs or endangers users, to lay or coppice a hedge, and to deal with serious pests, weeds or risks to health. You must keep a record of every job you carry out under an exemption, and be able to show the Rural Payments Agency how and why you relied on it. You can cut in August to sow oilseed rape or temporary grass only if you notify the agency each year first.

The Rural Payments Agency advises first. If that does not work it can issue compliance, restoration and stop notices and monetary penalties, and its officers can enter land to check.

Removing a hedgerow is a separate matter under the Hedgerows Regulations 1997. Your local planning authority has 42 days to answer your written notice, and it can issue a retention notice if the hedgerow is protected. Breaking these rules can bring an unlimited fine.

What changed

Cross-compliance ended with the Basic Payment Scheme. Regulators now use their own powers instead of payment cuts, and they aim to work with you and give you chances to put things right before formal action.

One cross-compliance requirement has gone altogether. You no longer have to keep green cover within 2 metres of a watercourse. The Farming Rules for Water still stop you applying manufactured fertiliser within 2 metres of water.

If you hold a Countryside Stewardship or Environmental Stewardship agreement, the Rural Payments Agency has removed the references to cross-compliance from its terms, but you must keep meeting the legal requirements that protect people, livestock and the environment, including the hedgerow rules.

Records to have ready

Regulators ask for evidence, so keep these where you can find them:

• soil test results no more than 5 years old for cultivated land, and a plan for each application of manure or fertiliser
• a record of every hedgerow job you carry out under an exemption
• livestock movement and TB test paperwork