Scottish Government has issued a reminder that the 2025 Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS) application deadline is next Thursday 12 June 2025; supporting documentation must also be submitted by this date.

They strongly advise applicants to upload supporting documents and submit applications as early as possible to avoid any potential issues.

The Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS) promotes land management practices which protect and enhance Scotland’s natural heritage, improve water quality, manage flood risk, preserve historic sites and mitigate and adapt to climate change. AECS is managed through the Rural Payments & Services website.

Due to the large number of applicants anticipated, those trying to submit and upload applications and supporting documentation in the final days before the deadline may experience issues with the functionality of the system, eg. a slowness in speed.

Applicants should also be aware that, when uploading documents to support the application:

documents that are 25MB or greater cannot be uploaded; they must be subdivided, with each part clearly indicated by adding, e.g. part 1, to the end of the document name
there is a file name character limit of 100 characters for the “Brief Description” box, and a combined character limit of 150 for the “Brief Description” plus the original document file name; the Rural Payments & Services portal will not permit documents exceeding the character limits to be uploaded
do not use special characters in document file names, as they may prevent the document from uploading, eg. !, £, &, (, ), _, #

For further information, please visit the dedicated AECS page (linked for your convenience), or contact your relevant local RPID area office.