Mr. Ted Massey:

It is important to bear in mind that the catchment boundary is defined by what is happening below ground as well as above ground. It may not necessarily follow the topography of what we might expect but, as Mr. Callanan said, we have already had to grapple with that. Following the two-year review under the current derogation, some parts of the country remained at 250 kg N/ha while other areas moved to 220 kg N/ha.

The approach we took was that once part of a LPIS parcel, effectively a field at farm level, remained at the higher stocking rate allowance, then the field remained at the higher allowance. We tried to keep it as simple as possible for farmers. Having mapped the country and categorised each parcel, we then wrote to the farmers who would potentially be impacted by that and set out exactly how each parcel they had applied for, in terms of our direct payments, was going to be impacted by the change. They could see exactly how they would be impacted going forward. We did that in 2023 in advance of the changes that became applicable in 2024. We have done it again this year because a small number of people are moving to 220 kg N/ha with effect from December this year, so we wrote to them as well.