Scottish Ministers have approved the Rural Support (Improvement) (Miscellaneous Amendment) (Scotland) (No. 2) Regulations 2025. Most provisions take effect on 31 December 2025, with a targeted derogation for small herds from 1 January 2026 and an uplift in ecological focus area obligations to 7% from 1 January 2027. The Scottish Parliament’s Rural Affairs and Islands Committee confirmed the timetable during scrutiny in November and December.
Two structural shifts drive the change. First, the long‑standing exemptions that removed many arable‑heavy or grass‑dominant holdings from ecological focus area management are removed. Second, the ecological focus area requirement increases from 5% for the 2026 scheme year to 7% from 2027, raising the volume of land that must be managed for environmental benefit on eligible holdings.
From the 2026 claim year, four additional ecological focus area options will be available: low input grassland, herb and legume‑rich pasture, unharvested crop, and low‑density woodland planting. These expand the menu beyond existing buffer strips, fallow land and nitrogen‑fixing crops, offering routes that may suit mixed and livestock systems as well as arable units.
Mapping is formalised. Farmers must prepare and maintain an ecological focus area map that is no more than one year old at the start of the claim year, keep it on file, and provide it to Scottish Ministers on request. The map can be combined with the habitats map required under Article 43a of Regulation 1307/2013, introduced earlier this year, so holdings can avoid duplicating field‑scale mapping.
Field edge and cover‑crop rules are tightened and simplified. Field margins move from 1 metre to 3 metres. The sowing date for green cover shifts to 1 November, and the previous bar on harvesting catch crops or green cover before 31 December is removed. These adjustments align ecological actions more closely with Scottish seasonal conditions while simplifying inspection criteria.
Species lists expand to make cover and nitrogen‑fixing choices more practical. Additional options include triticale/rye mixes, several clovers (including alsike, crimson, Persian and balansa), buckwheat, kale, stubble turnip, forage rape and beans, with further nitrogen‑fixing additions such as berseem and sweet clover and fenugreek. The broader list should ease seed sourcing and rotation planning.
The Scottish Suckler Beef Support Scheme sees two operational changes. Applications can be submitted up to and including 14 January following the relevant calendar year, giving producers and agents a short post‑year‑end window to finalise submissions and late registrations.
A targeted derogation applies to small herds. From 1 January 2026 and for the 2026 scheme year onwards, applicants claiming ten or fewer calves are exempt from the calving‑interval conditionality that has applied since 1 January 2025. In practice, this removes the strict first‑born and 410‑day interval requirements for those smaller claims while leaving all other eligibility conditions unchanged.
Administrative requirements are also streamlined. The separate fertiliser and lime management plan is removed, reducing paperwork for grassland‑based holdings provided soil and nutrient management is evidenced through other Whole Farm Plan elements introduced under Article 43a earlier in 2025.
For the 2026 Single Application Form round, businesses should plan on producing an ecological focus area map dated within the previous 12 months, re‑measuring field margins to 3 metres, and checking rotations against the updated sowing date and wider species lists. Holdings newly subject to ecological focus area management after the exemption removals should run provisional calculations early to confirm they can reach 5% for 2026.
From 2027, the required ecological focus area share increases to 7%. Advisors will want to test which of the four new options fit best alongside existing greening actions, for example using low input grassland or unharvested crops where space is constrained, or deploying low‑density woodland planting on marginal strips that are hard to cultivate.
The legal basis for these changes sits with section 2 of the Agriculture (Retained EU Law and Data) (Scotland) Act 2020 and the retained Direct Payments Regulation (EU) 1307/2013 as adapted for Scotland. The Whole Farm Plan framework added in March 2025 via new Article 43a provides the mapping hook that allows ecological focus area maps to be combined with the habitats map, while the Scottish Government’s Agricultural Reform Route Map sets the wider policy trajectory for 2026–27.