A second judicial review on CAP cross compliance breaches has been settled, with the Ulster Farmers' Union calling it a "victory for all farmers".
The legal battle against the Department for Agriculture (DAERA) and Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA), supported by the farming union, has now been settled.
The case related to an earlier judicial review taken against the two organisations on the definition of ‘intent’ for cross compliance breaches, involving Co Armagh farmer and former Ulster Farmers' Union (UFU) president Ian Marshall.
The UFU believes both were treated "extremely harshly" when a pollution incident led to the loss of thousands of pounds of income through CAP payments.
In the initial case, the judge found the original decision by DAERA was ‘unlawful’ and the UFU were awarded costs.
However, to date, DAERA have only paid £70,000 of the total £140,000 and continue to dispute the cost associated with the UFU’s legal support. As part of the ruling, DAERA were also instructed to review Ian Marshall’s cross compliance breach.
'Victory for all farmers'
UFU president, Ivor Ferguson, said it was a "victory for all farmers" and demonstrated the collective strength of the farming organisation.
“For us, it is a matter of principle. Our role is to defend our members against unfairness and in seeking and supporting these judicial reviews we aimed to protect the wider industry from harsh treatment for minor mistakes,” Mr Ferguson said.
He said the outcomes of both related judicial reviews will have a "lasting, positive impact" for farmers.
The UFU President added: “The case was not about pollution or the scale of incident. We accept there is no acceptable level of pollution.
“The case was about whether NIEA/DAERA were right to effectively ignore the views of the independent external appeal panel which considered this was a negligent rather than intentional breach and had recommended accordingly.
Mr Ferguson said: “In that case, the court found in our favour on seven counts. The result was indisputable, as evidenced by DAERA’s decision not to appeal. We expected that Mr Marshall’s case would be reviewed and the original decision overturned.
“Shockingly, DAERA upheld their original decision. This was unacceptable and we had no other choice but to go back to court.”
Second judicial review
Earlier this year, the court allowed a second judicial review to contest DAERA’s decision.
“DAERA have consented to quash their decision in Mr Marshall’s case. They have accepted the views of the independent external panel that the cross compliance breach was negligent rather than intentional,” Mr Ferguson explained.
As a result, Mr Marshall will now receive a payment adjustment for the 2012 and 2013 years of £43,000 plus £3,000 in interest.
This represents the outstanding monies owed minus the revised penalty applied of £3,600. DAERA have also agreed to pay costs to the UFU, who provided just under £130,000 of financial support for this second case.
The UFU President said: “The entire process has been time consuming and protracted over several years. It has also required substantial cost outlay on the Union’s part of around £270,000. But the outcome achieved has been to the benefit of our wider membership so it has been well worth it.
“We will continue to take similar legal action where and when necessary. Indeed, we have a further case ongoing at present against DAERA to challenge their decision to move to a single stage review process for CAP decisions.”
