Under Article 12 of the EC Control Regulation 1975/2006 there is a requirement that at least 5% of beneficiaries who have annual recurrent commitments (agri-environment and forestry - except establishment), under the Scottish Rural Development Regulation (SRDP) must be selected for an on the spot inspection each year.
Under Article 27 of the EC Control Regulation 1975/2006 there is a requirement that at least 4% of the public expenditure on capital items declared to the Commission each year and 5% of the public expenditure over the whole programming period must be selected for an on the spot inspection each year. These capital items will be inspected prior to payment of the final claim.
Under Article 26 of the EC Control Regulation 1975/2006 there is a requirement that there is a 100% administrative check (invoices) on all investment operations (capital items) and this check should include an on site visit to the holding, except for smaller investments.
As part of the on the spot compliance inspections, Cross-Compliance checks will be carried out on 1% of all beneficiaries of agri-environment, animal welfare, first afforestation on agricultural land and forest-environment payments. The selection sample will be based on a cross compliance risk analysis.
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Agriculture/grants/Schemes/ccompliance
In addition, as part of the on the spot compliance inspections, checks will be carried out on all the beneficiaries of agri-environment payments to ensure they are complying with minimum requirements for fertiliser and plant protection product use and the environmental condition to protect features or areas of historic or archaeological interest.
The inspection system is designed to reduce the number of visits to any individual beneficiary. These on the spot inspections will be amalgamated with all other land-based schemes (e.g. SFP, LFASS, LMCMS, RSS) and will involve verification of all the undertakings of the beneficiary on the day of the inspection.