Using SAF to meet the statistical requirements of JAC

The Single Application Form (SAF) and June Agricultural Census (JAC) are designed to achieve different objectives for Scottish Government. There is a legal requirement to complete a JAC form under the Agriculture Act 1947, whereas SAF offers a financial reward in the form of subsidy payments.

Both JAC and SAF have a number of EC statistical reporting requirements. The JAC covers the whole of the agricultural population of around 50,000 holdings while SAF covers only those businesses that are claiming agricultural support.

During 2008 we carried out a research study, in collaboration with SAC, to assess to what extent information collected from the SAF could be used to meet the statistical requirements of the JAC and how much the JAC could be streamlined or combined with the SAF as a result. The final report is available from the Scottish Government website.

As a result of the findings contained within this report Scottish Government modified their JAC business process so that SAF land use data was used as input to JAC where possible. The following text was added to the guidance notes of the 2009 SAF:

"We are now collecting the land use information for the June Agricultural Census (JAC) on the IACS (3) (Data Sheet for permanent land). If you rent out land seasonally you will have to tell us the use of this land. You will still need to complete a JAC but you will have fewer questions to answer because you will not need to give us your land use information again."