The number of penalties handed out by DAERA inspectors to NI farmers has shot up at an unprecedented rate over the past two years.

Data obtained from the department by the Irish Farmers Journal shows that 933 rule breaches were found during cross compliance inspections last year.

In 2021, there were 561 breaches identified during checks and 294 violations were found the year before that.

As Figure 1 shows, the number of cross compliance penalties handed out in NI each year had been relatively steady until two years ago.

In 2022, one third of all cross compliance breaches were for rules relating to cattle identification and registration (see Figure 2).

Just over 20% of penalties were due to regulations on preventing nitrates pollution.

A similar proportion were for rules related to landscape features, such as removing hedgerows without permission from DAERA. Regulations on animal welfare accounted for 14% of the penalties handed out.

Fines

In total, 69% of all cross compliance breaches last year led to penalties being applied which were worth 3% or less of each farmer’s Basic Payment.

However, much heftier penalties were handed out in many instances, with 14% of all breaches resulting in fines worth more than 20% of payments.

More inspections

The number of cross compliance inspections being carried out on NI farms has also been on the rise in recent years, with 1,989 inspections conducted in 2022.

That compares to 1,554 cross compliance checks in 2021 and 1,242 checks the year before that.

Even in 2019, which was before COVID-19, there were only 1,419 inspections conducted.

The majority of cross compliance checks are conducted on farms that are already seen by DAERA as being at risk of breaking the rules.

For example, the largest number of checks relates to cattle identification rules, with 801 inspections carried out last year.

Of these, 601 were risk-based checks and only 200 were random inspections.

Land eligibility

There continues to be relatively few issues found by DAERA during checks to ensure land is eligible to claim payments.

Out of 253 land inspections last year, 16 led to penalties. The total area over-declared equated to 40 hectares and penalties came to £8,453 overall.

These statistics are broadly in line with recent years, with 20 penalties from 267 land inspections in 2021 and 33 deductions from 243 checks the year previous.