A judgment made in the High Court in Belfast this week has opened up the possibility for historic breaches of cross-compliance, and subsequent CAP payments penalties, being re-examined.The judicial review was taken by the Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) against DAERA and centred on a pollution incident on the farm of former UFU president Ian Marshall in January 2012. He was found to be in breach of two statutory management requirements. The first was deemed an intentional breach for allowing farmyard run-off with effluent and manure to enter a waterway. The second was a negligent breach for not maintaining storage facilities to prevent run-off.
A judgment made in the High Court in Belfast this week has opened up the possibility for historic breaches of cross-compliance, and subsequent CAP payments penalties, being re-examined.
The judicial review was taken by the Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) against DAERA and centred on a pollution incident on the farm of former UFU president Ian Marshall in January 2012. He was found to be in breach of two statutory management requirements. The first was deemed an intentional breach for allowing farmyard run-off with effluent and manure to enter a waterway. The second was a negligent breach for not maintaining storage facilities to prevent run-off.
Marshall appealed the ruling and at the second stage review, the independent external review panel recommended that the first breach be changed from intentional to negligent. This would have brought a much lower cross-compliance penalty. However, DAERA later informed Marshall that the breach was not being changed.
The cause of the waterway pollution was from mismanagement of a diverter system. During the hearing in September, Marshall’s representative, Hugh Mercer QC, said that the breach was not intentional as he did not know the cause of it before the inspection.
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