Guidance

Agreement holder's guide: Woodland Tree Health grants 2023

Updated 5 August 2024

Applies to England

Read this guidance if your agreement started between 5 January and 31 December 2023.

A Countryside Stewardship (CS) agreement comprises:

• the scheme Terms and Conditions
• an Agreement Document (which sets out Agreement Holder specific details)
• the supplementary documents referred to in the Agreement Document

The CS Terms and Conditions refer to the mandatory elements of this manual that Agreement Holders must comply with.

CS Woodland Tree Health (WTH) grants are for a maximum of 3 years. The Agreement will usually start from the first day of the following calendar month after you have accepted the agreement offer. The exact start date of the agreement will be set out in the Agreement Document.

Mandatory parts of the manual:

• section 6: WTH scheme requirements and procedures
• section 7: Manage your WTH grant agreement set out the mandatory parts of the manual for Agreement Holders.

6. WTH scheme requirements and procedures

You must read and meet the requirements detailed in this section as these are mandatory for all WTH grant agreement holders.

‘Agreement Holder’ means the person (whether an individual, a company or other entity) who has entered into the CS agreement as identified in the Agreement Document (in line with clause 1 of Annex 1 : CS Terms and Conditions.

‘Agreement Land’ is defined in clause 1 of Annex 1: CS Terms and Conditions. If your application is successful, we will send you an agreement offer letter.

6.1 Entering into an agreement

If your application is successful, we will send you an agreement offer. This offer cannot be amended.

If you want to accept, you must return the signed acceptance declaration to us within 20 working days of the date of the letter. If you do not accept your offer in time, we will withdraw it.

You can withdraw your application as long as we have not sent you an agreement offer. If we have made you an agreement offer, you cannot withdraw your application, but you can reject the agreement offer.

The agreement start date will be set out in the agreement offer. Once you have accepted the offer and entered into an agreement, you cannot modify, extend or amend the agreement without our written permission.

6.2 Evidence: record keeping

You must keep all records relevant to the expenditure of the grant for at least 7 years from the end of the agreement.

You must obtain and keep evidence to show that you have carried out all the requirements of your agreement to support. You may need this evidence to support your claim or during a site visit or administrative check.

Your evidence must show that:

• you are eligible for the scheme
• the activities funded under your agreement are appropriate
• the funded activity is taking or has taken place

We need you to do this so that we can demonstrate that public money is being spent effectively and is delivering the intended results.

Record keeping is an important part of an effective farm, or woodland management system. You can use some existing farm records to meet scheme requirements, but you may also need to keep other records specifically about the management being funded.

The record keeping requirements for each capital item are published in the Countryside Stewardship grants (known as the grant finder).

6.2.1 General evidence requirements for applicants and agreement holders

It is your responsibility to get all consents, approvals or permissions that you may need due to your specific circumstances and to carry out the particular capital item.

These consents, approvals and permissions must remain effective for the duration of the agreement, and records kept for 7 years from the end of the agreement.

6.3 Photographic evidence

You need to keep dated photographic evidence for capital items to support an application and any claims. You must make this available when we ask for it, for example as part of administrative record checks or during a site visit.

6.3.1 Photographic evidence in the application stage

You need to take and retain dated photographs showing the area where works will take place. Your photographs must meet the required standards set out in section 6.3.3. Check the Countryside Stewardship grants for more information.

6.3.2 Photographic evidence in the claim stage

For a partial or full claim, you must take a dated photograph after the works have been completed and send it with your payment claim. This must show the ‘works completed condition’. The ‘application’ and ‘works completed’ photographs must be taken from the same position.

6.3.3 Photographic evidence quality

All photographs must meet the following standards. Requirements apply equally to digital or paper photographs.

1. Quality – photographs must be in focus and clearly show the relevant capital item or environmental feature. If you send your images by email, please send them as JPEG files. Digital images should not be smaller than 600 pixels by 400 pixels and the image file size no larger than 400 KB. Printed photographs must be no smaller than 15cm by 10cm. Photographs can be in either portrait or landscape.
2. Photograph to identify the environmental feature or capital item(s) concerned it is your responsibility to have sufficient evidence that the investment or required management has taken place. For example, more than one photograph may be needed where the feature or capital item exceeds the frame or is not clearly evident from a single photograph.
3. Where possible, include a significant feature to provide authenticity, for example a ditch, fence, farm building, road or telegraph poles.
4. Where possible, mark the photographed feature location and direction from which the photograph has been taken with an ‘X’ and an arrow on a copy of a map (or map extract) of the agreement area.

Where scale or continuity is important, include a feature, or introduce one, for example a quad bike, vehicle or use a sighting pole (2m high with 50cm intervals marked in red and white). Take pictures consistently from the same spot for ‘before’ and ‘after’ photographs of the capital item.

6.3.4 Clearly labelled photographs

Use the Ordnance Survey (OS) map sheet reference and National Grid reference for the land parcel, followed by the relevant proposed or implemented capital item code, date, agreement holder name and SBI. If you are sending more than one image, also include the image number.

For example, if we ask you to send ‘before and after’ photographs to support capital item tree planting (TE4) the images should be labelled as XX12345678_TE4_ddmmyyyy_name_SBI_1 and XX12345678_TE4_ddmmyyy_name_SBI_2.

Save digital images under the label outlined above. Clearly write the label on the reverse of printed photographs detailing the OS map sheet reference and National Grid reference for the land parcel, the implemented capital item code, date, Agreement Holder name and SBI.

6.4 Publicity requirements

The Terms and Conditions require you to comply with all instructions and guidance relating to acknowledging and publicising the support provided. This includes using any materials or templates which are provided for this purpose.

7. Manage your WTH grant agreement

You must read and meet the requirements detailed in this section as these are mandatory for all WTH grant Agreement Holders.

7.1 Agreement period

You can start work on or after the agreement start date.

You must complete all capital works within 3 years of the agreement start date.

We must receive all claims for payment no later than 3 months after the agreement end date. We will not accept claims after this date.

Any new agreements applied for from 5 January 2023, will be for a maximum of 3 years. During this period, you must complete all capital works. You then have a further 3 months from the end of the agreement to submit your payment claim.

You must maintain any capital items funded through the scheme in the same condition and specification set out in your WTH grant agreement, for 5 years from the date of final payment (durability period).

You may also need to apply to Natural England for Site of Specific Scientific Interest (SSSI) consent, if applicable (see section 4.5.3 in the agreement holder’s guide). Your agreement cannot start until that consent is granted by Natural England.

7.2 Change in circumstances

You must notify us as soon as you can if there is a change in your circumstances that might:

• affect the amount of funding you have been or will be paid
• prevent you from complying with the conditions of your agreement
• prevent you from carrying out the work set out in your agreement, including preventing you from carrying out the work to the agreed standard or in the agreed timeframe
• affect your continued entitlement to agreement funding, for example if you no longer have management control of the land parcels included in your agreement

7.3 Amendments

You should be able to carry out the capital items under your agreement without difficulty. However, should an exceptional situation arise where you need to change the items or their time schedule, you can ask us to amend your agreement.

We will only agree to changes that are necessary to achieve the objectives of the scheme. You need written permission from us before you can amend or reschedule approved capital items.

You should contact us if you would like to discuss an amendment to your agreement before the end of the original agreement period to complete the capital items. We must agree to the request before you make any changes to the item, its location or timing, and you may need to repay all or part of previous payments that you have received. We will write to confirm if your request is successful.

The amendment will not be valid until you have received a letter from us agreeing to the amendment and advising you of the date from which it will take effect.

7.4 Agreement Holders using own labour or contractors for capital works

7.4.1 Using own labour to undertake capital works

You can use your own labour to carry out capital works. If you do so, you will need to prepare time sheets signed by the employee and employer showing:

• the hourly rate for your labour or a farm employee’s labour
• what work was carried out
• the date the work was carried out

You must tell the employees about the agreement and its requirements. It is your responsibility to make sure that work carried out using your own labour or a farm employee’s labour does not breach the terms of your agreement. If the employee commits any breaches, you will be responsible for any payment reductions.

7.4.2 Using contractors to carry out capital works

You can employ contractors to carry out agricultural work on agreement land, or to carry out work needed under the CS capital items.

You must tell the contractor about the agreement and its requirements. It is your responsibility to make sure that work carried out by contractors does not breach the terms of your agreement. If the contractor commits any breaches on the land, you will be responsible for any payment reductions.

7.5 Make a claim for payment

You can make a claim for reimbursement of capital works at any time of the year. The work must have been completed as per the terms of your agreement and you must have been invoiced or charged for the work before you can submit your claim. If you cannot demonstrate that the work is complete, your claim may be rejected.

Please note:

• the minimum value of any payment claim is £500 (an exception may be made for the final payment)
• if you have used a contractor to deliver the works, you must be able to demonstrate that the work is complete and that you have been charged or invoiced by the contractor before you can claim payment from us
• you must send your final payment claim with supporting information (including photos) within 3 months of the agreement end date
• valid claims will be paid within 2 months of receipt

if we receive a claim more than 3 months but less than 6 months after the agreement end date, a late claim reduction will be applied. If we receive it more than 6 months after the agreement end date, the claim will not be accepted, and no payment will be made.

7.5.1 Submitting claims for capital items

Once the capital works are finished and you can demonstrate that the work is complete and you have been charged or invoiced you should sign into the Rural Payments service and submit a claim online. You can find guidance on how to submit a capital claim online.

You must keep evidence to show that the work is finished. Section 6.4 Photographic evidence explains the photographic evidence you need and you can find details of evidence needed for individual capital items at Countryside Stewardship grants.

We will make payments directly into your bank account. You must maintain any capital items funded through the scheme in the same condition and specification set out in your agreement for 5 years from the date of final payment.

7.6 Scheme checks and site visits

We are required to make sure that CS is properly controlled to protect public money. To support this, we undertake administrative checks and site visits to monitor Agreement Holder compliance with the rules governing their agreements and the success of CS overall.

We undertake 3 main checks:

• administrative record checks
• agreement monitoring visits
• physical or virtual site visits

You must allow any UK public authority (or their authorised representatives or auditors) to access your land or premises to carry out site visits.

Unless we have reasons to suspect that you are in breach of your agreement, we will seek to agree a date and time for a site visit where possible. If not, you will be notified at least 48 hours in advance of the site visit.

You must help and co-operate with any person carrying out a site visit. Any refusal to do so or obstruction will be treated as a breach of the CS terms and conditions, and you may face recovery, suspension or termination of your agreement. We may also refuse support for other Defra grant schemes for up to 2 years.

7.6.1 Administrative record checks

We will check all stages of the application and claim processes, including your application form, claim forms and, where appropriate, the nature and quality of any supporting evidence, such as receipts and farm records. This is to make sure that you meet eligibility requirements at the application stage, and that various forms and records match up during the whole agreement period.

If you do not provide records when asked, or there are discrepancies, we will treat this as a breach of your agreement. It is your responsibility to keep such records if you want to rely on this to support your claim.

As part of the administrative checks on annual claims, we select a percentage where we carry out follow-up checks of agreement holder records. Therefore, we may ask you to send us copies of your on-farm records for us to check. We may also ask you to send dated photographs for some land management options. We will give reasonable advance notice of when you should take the photographs and the final date for return of records.

7.6.2 Agreement monitoring visits

Advisers may visit you or your land to monitor environmental progress, discuss site visits (or previous visit reports), or if you ask us to visit.

Results from these visits will be discussed with us and appropriate action taken.

7.6.3 Site visits

Each year, we will carry out site visits on a sample of agreements, to make sure environmental aims are being delivered and scheme aims or requirements have been met.

You must follow the requirements for the specific item, including any specifications you need to adhere to and retain any records that are required to support your claim.

If at the visit we find a breach of the rules, we may apply reductions (read section 7.7). Find out what to expect from a site visit.

7.6.4 Cross compliance

You must comply with all applicable domestic law. In particular, note that while cross compliance no longer applies, the majority of cross compliance rules are also requirements under domestic legislation.

7.7 What happens if you breach your agreement

If you do not meet the terms of your agreement, we may reduce or withhold your payment or ask you to repay any monies we have already paid to you.

If we find a breach, we will write to you and tell you. You’ll have the opportunity to appeal if you do not agree with our findings. If a breach is confirmed, we’ll work out the most appropriate action we need to take and let you know. We may apply more than one course of action depending on the breach found. We’ll assess the level of breach in a fair and consistent manner, on a case-by-case basis, using the following set of criteria:

• to what extent the breach can be rectified
• the circumstances, nature and consequences surrounding the breach
• any failure to cooperate with site visits, or further investigations
• any steps taken to report a change in circumstances
• whether it is an isolated or a repeat occurrence
• whether it was intentional
• whether it was because of reckless or negligent action

If there’s a breach of your agreement or the regulations, we may:

• ask you to correct the breach
• issue a letter explaining that we’ve assessed the breach and what you have to do to amend your agreement

For more serious breaches, we may:

• reduce the payments you get, or withhold part of them
• reduce or withhold money from other schemes
• recover money we’ve already paid

In the most extreme cases, we may:

• end your agreement
• stop you receiving financial assistance (other than BPS) under any other scheme for up to 2 years

In exceptional circumstances where there is reasonable suspicion of a serious breach or fraud, then we may access land and your premises without notice, using powers of entry. In these circumstances, for example as part of a fraud investigation, we may access any computer that’s been used in connection with the evidence or these records.

If we find breaches during administrative checks or any site visits, we will write to tell you and you will have the opportunity to make written representations if you feel that our findings are incorrect.

In these cases, we will work out the level of reduction we need to apply, by looking at the severity of the breach and whether it is an isolated or a repeat occurrence. We may apply a reduction to your claims, unless you can demonstrate you were compliant.

A brief explanation of how breaches are assessed is set out below.

Severity

We will assess what has happened due to the breach or non-compliance and consider the objectives of the agreement or specifications that were not met. For example, constructing an item in a way that does not deliver what the item was designed for would be classed as a severe breach. As part of this assessment, we will also take into account whether the breach will have short or long-term impacts.

Re-occurrence

The assessment will depend on a number factors, for example whether a similar event of non-compliance has been found in previous claims and whether the re-occurrence concerns the same or a similar type of work.

If we consider that a breach is so serious that it cannot be rectified, we may cancel the agreement. In serious circumstances, you may be forbidden from entering another agri-environment scheme for up to 2 years.

7.7.1 Refusal or withdrawal of support claimed

In certain cases we may refuse, or withdraw in full, the support claimed and terminate your existing agreement. We will do this if we think:

• you have committed a serious non-compliance
• you have provided false evidence
• you have negligently failed to provide the necessary information (for instance, where we have asked for it repeatedly and there is no good reason why you have not provided it)

If we have to withdraw support for these reasons, we will terminate the existing agreement and you will not be permitted to reapply for the agreement for 2 years. We may also refuse support for other Defra grant schemes for up to 2 years. If this is the case, we will tell you and you will have the right to appeal against this decision.

7.7.2 Over-declaration of expenditure

If you submit a claim for more than the value of the costs which are eligible to be claimed, we will reduce the payment to the correct amount or recover the amount of the over-declaration if payment has already been made.

7.8 Good reason for a breach

You may be unable to meet your requirements under the agreement because of exceptional circumstances. If this happens, you must write to tell us within 8 weeks from the date on which you (or any person authorised to act for you) are able to do so.

You will need to provide written evidence to show:

• what has happened
• how the event meant they were unable to meet the scheme rules

Good reasons for a breach may include, but are not limited to:

• the death of the Agreement Holder
• serious illness
• a severe weather event
• the accidental destruction of capital items connected to your agreement
• damage caused by criminality
• supply chain issues
• an epizootic or a plant disease affecting part or all of your crops, trees or livestock

We will consider the facts to decide whether the Agreement Holder is relieved of all or part of their obligations under the agreement, and whether all or part of the grant should be withheld or repaid.

If you are aware of the issue when entering into your agreement, then it is unlikely to be considered a good reason for a breach.

7.9 Change of ownership

You cannot transfer your agreement.

If you sell or let, all or part of the land under your WTH Agreement to another party, we will end the agreement on those parcels. You may need to repay all or part of the grant payments you have already received.

If, after your agreement has ended, you sell or let all or part of the land which was previously under your agreement to another party during the 5-year durability period, you may need to repay part of the grant payments you have already received.

7.10 Disputes, appeals and complaints

If you are unhappy with a decision we have taken about your application or agreement, you can submit a complaint.

If you’re unhappy with a decision we’ve taken or service you’ve had from us, you can ask us to reconsider. If you’re still unhappy with the result of our decision, you can appeal.

Follow the RPA complaints procedure to raise a complaint. This also includes information on how to request a reconsideration or submit an appeal.