The Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) is the new system for paying farmers under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which replaced the Single Payment Scheme (SPS) on 1 January 2015.

Applications and submissions by farmers and landowners under the new system will need to be more detailed than they were under the old one.

How to register with the Rural Payments Agency

All claimants must register with the revamped Rural Payment Agency (RPA) as soon as possible; early registration will allow for more time to identify issues on the system and to correct them.

To register, you must create an account with the RPA by calling 03000 200 301. Registration is then finalised on the Rural Payments website.

Before you call it would be useful to have the following information at hand, as it’s needed for the registration process:

•Business name

•Single business identifier

•Number of entitlements held

•Value and date of recent payments

•Holding number (CPH)

•Details of past SPS applications

•Legally authorised individual's date of birth

•Answer to previously registered security questions (date, place and event)

•Personal Identifier Number

•Account number and sort code for the bank account that received the most recent SPS payment

•Vendor number (payee number on any recent remittance advice)

•National Insurance number (may be required though not asked for to date)

Once registered by phone, the system assumes you have an email address, but the temporary activation code needed to register can be emailed to a family member or your agent if you wish. For example, Savills Agribusiness consultants are registered as online RPA (Rural Payment Agency) agents and can act on your behalf. Our agent identifier number is 1102882607.

Further information

More details can be found on the gov.uk website and on the Savills website