FARMERS in England have lost out on millions of pounds in EU payments because of inadequate records.

The Rural Payment’s Agency (RPA) said poor record keeping cost farmers £2.33m in reduced Single Payment Scheme (SPS) payments last year.

Paul Caldwell, RPA operations director, said: “The data clearly shows that, similar to 2012, failure to keep adequate records was a major cause of breaches across a number of cross compliance requirements.”

There were 2,972 failures last year.

Poor performance on soil protection and nitrate vulnerable zones in 2012, saw the Agency carry out extra inspections last year which generated 711 of the total breaches recorded.

As in 2012, the highest number of breaches – 810 – were by cattle keepers failing to report deaths and movements, incorrect reporting of movements, and animals being found without passports.

The second most common breaches – 562 – were in Nitrate Vulnerable Zones and included failing to keep accurate and up to date records, leaving temporary field heaps in position for more than 12 months or too close to water courses.

Soil Protection Review issues were a close third, producing 535 failures. Issues with animal medicine and mortality records rose from 95 breaches in 2012 to 148 last year; breaches by farmers cultivating or applying fertilizer or pesticides in protection zones around hedgerows or watercourses increased from 184 to 221; while farmers failing to comply with a water abstraction licence saw a rise of 23 breaches.