Confirm your information and apply
To confirm the information in your application is correct, check it before you submit it online.
When you’ve completed your application you need to check that the information in it is correct. To do this, create or update your application summary by following the instructions in the ‘Complete’ section under ‘Application summary’. Then if needed, you can go back into your application and change it.
If you decide you do not want to submit your application, click ‘Withdraw’. A message appears to check that you do want to withdraw the application.
Click ‘No’ if you do not want to withdraw it.
Click ‘Yes’ if you do want to withdraw it. You’ll see a screen message confirming that you’ve successfully withdraw the application. This application will not be submitted to RPA, and you cannot open it again but you can create a new application while the green application buttons are available.
Click ‘Back’ to return to the application screen (where you’ll see the application status is now ‘Withdrawn’ and the application is no longer ‘Active’).
If you have checked your application summary and the information in your application is correct, click ‘Submit’ to apply for the wildlife offer.
If your application meets all the requirements for the grant and you have completed the declaration, the screen will confirm that your application has ‘submitted successfully’ to RPA.
Click ‘Print’ if you want to print and keep the confirmation for your records.
Click ‘Back’ to return to the application screen (where you’ll see that the application status has changed to ‘Submitted’ and the application is still ‘Active’. It also shows the date and time your application was submitted.
The deadline for RPA to receive your supporting documents is given in the ‘Supporting documents and evidence’ section.
Application fails to submit
If your application fails to submit, a screen message will tell you this. It will also show the reasons why it did not submit with a red warning box beside it.
Read this message fully by using the scroll bar to the right of the message. You may find it useful to print and save the message. You may be able to do this by clicking the button on the right side of the ‘mouse’ or ‘touchpad’, and choosing the print or save options.
Click ‘Back’ to return to the application screen.
Check and correct all of the sections detailed in the message before you ‘Submit’ your application again.
The information below will help you to identify what you need to do before you submit your application again.
The scheme eligibility questions have not been completed. Please complete the ‘Scheme Eligibility’ questions under ‘Edit your application’
You need to ‘Open’ your application from the ‘Countryside Stewardship Applications’ screen, and click ‘Scheme Eligibility’ under ‘Edit your Application’. You must answer all of the questions with either ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. If you answer ‘Yes’ to the other funding question, you must provide details about the other funding in the box.
Read the ‘Scheme eligibility’ section for more information.
One or more of the parcels under your application are ineligible due to being in another application or agreement. Please review the ‘Parcel under agreement warning report’
You need to ‘Open’ your application from the ‘Countryside Stewardship Applications’ screen, and click ‘Update parcels under agreement’ under ‘Edit your Application’. Remove any land parcels that are listed in your ‘Parcels under agreement warning report’.
Read the ‘Add land parcels’ section for more information.
You must select ‘Yes’ in the Declarations section to be able to submit your application
You need to ‘Open’ your application from the ‘Countryside Stewardship Applications’ screen, and click ‘Declarations and Undertakings’ under ‘Edit your Application’. Click ‘Yes’ to confirm that you accept the declaration.
Read the ‘Declarations and undertakings’ section for more information.
Insufficient quantity delivered against the ‘Nectar and Pollen sources for insect pollinators and insect-rich foraging for birds’ options. Please add more options of this type to your application under ‘Edit your application’
You need to ‘Open’ your application from the ‘Countryside Stewardship Applications screen’, and click ‘Step 1’ under ‘Edit your Application’. You must include at least:
For the ‘Arable offer’ you must apply for at least 3 options including:
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at least 1 from ‘Nectar and pollen’ options
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at least 1 from ‘Nesting and shelter’ options
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at least 1 from ‘Additional resources and habitats’ options.
For the ‘Lowland grazing offer’ you must apply for at least 2 options including:
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at least 1 from ‘Nectar and pollen’ options
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at least 1 from ‘Nesting and shelter’ options.
For the ‘Mixed farming offer’ you must apply for at least 3 options including:
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the ‘Winter food’ option
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at least 1 from ‘Nectar and pollen’ options
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at least 1 from ‘Additional resources’ options.
For the ‘Upland Offer’ you must apply for one of the following:
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at least 1 base option and 2 supplements
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at least 2 base options and 1 supplement
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at least 3 base options
Insufficient quantity delivered against the ‘Nesting and shelter for Insect pollinators and birds’ option. Please add more options of this type to your application in ‘Edit your application’
You need to ‘Open’ your application from the ‘Countryside Stewardship Applications’ screen, ‘Open’ your application and click ‘Step 2’ under ‘Edit your Application’. You must include at least 1% or 1ha of GS1 per 100ha of farmed land in your application in this category to meet the minimum requirements.
Read ‘Step 1’, ‘Step 2’ or ‘Step 3’ in the annexes for more information.
The following details (the parcel number and incompatible options will be listed here) under your application are not compatible with each other, on the same parcel of land, please review and make changes to your application in ‘Edit your application’
You need to remove one of the incompatible options from the parcel(s) listed here.
From the ‘Countryside Stewardship Applications’ screen, ‘Open’ your application and click either ‘Step 1’, ‘Step 2’ or ‘Step 3’ under ‘Edit your Application’ to remove the option.
Read ‘Step 1’, ‘Step 2’, or ‘Step 3’ in the annexes for more information.
After you’ve submitted your application and returned to the application screen, you may see 4 green buttons beside your submitted application details:
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Application summary
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Evidence checklist – if this is not visible on your screen read ‘Countryside Stewardship grants’ on GOV.UK.
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EIM map
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Options and FER map
Application summary and Evidence checklist
You may have already created these at the ‘Edit your application’ screen while you were completing your application. You should ‘generate’ and ‘download’ them again after you complete your application to make sure they contain everything you’ve put into your application. The checklist tells you what evidence you must submit to RPA by the application deadline and what evidence you should keep until you’re asked for it. (If the checklist is not visible on your screen read ‘Countryside Stewardship grants’.) As explained earlier in the ‘View and print documents’ section.
You may want to print or save your application summary and keep it for your records.
Options/FER maps and EIM map
This is another opportunity to view, print or save these maps.
Read the ‘Supporting documents and evidence’ section for details about how to send your supporting documents and any evidence that must be submitted to RPA.
RPA must receive your online application, supporting documents and evidence that must be submitted to RPA by midnight on 30 July 2021. You may also need to keep some evidence until you’re asked for it – read below.
Supporting documents
For example,
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Options map
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FER Map
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A Land Ownership Consent form (if required)
Maps – for more information about what to include in the maps, read the ‘Options and Farm Environment Record (FER) map’ section, and Annexes 5 and 6. Or read the ‘Mid Tier and Wildlife Offers manual’ on GOV.UK, search for ‘Wildlife Offers’.
Evidence
Some evidence RPA must receive by midnight on 30 July 2021, and some evidence you should keep until you’re asked for it.
Read about the requirements for each option or item in your evidence checklist or ‘Countryside Stewardship grants’ on GOV.UK.
How to submit your supporting documents or evidence
You can scan and email all the documents above to ruralpayments@defra.gov.uk. The maximum size of emails we can accept is 32MB. For security reasons, we cannot accept discs, USB pen drives or other external storage media.
You must put your SBI and Application ID number in the email and on all documents. Also use ‘Application – CS – Wildlife Offer’ as the email subject heading.
You can submit digital photos by email, but do not scan printed photos as the quality is not good enough.
Or you can post the documents to RPA using the address in the ‘More information and Contact details’ section.
If your application meets the eligibility criteria, you will be offered an agreement.
You’ll receive confirmation regardless of whether or not your application has been successful. If it’s successful you’ll receive an agreement offer letter. The Agreement Start Date will be set out in the agreement documents contained with the agreement offer letter.
If you want to accept the agreement offer you must return the signed acceptance declaration to RPA within 20 working days of receiving it. If you do not accept the offer in time, it will be withdrawn. The person signing the acceptance declaration must have at least ‘View’ business permission level, and ‘Submit’ permission for CS Agreements in the Rural Payments service.
If you enter into a wildlife offer by accepting the offer (an ‘Agreement Holder’) you cannot modify, extend or amend the wildlife offer. You must either accept or decline the offer.