A livestock identification inspection is a check that your tags, passports, registers and movement reports tell the same story. This is who turns up, what they look at, and how to be ready without losing a day.
In England the Rural Payments Agency checks at least 3% of cattle holdings a year, 20% chosen at random and 80% by risk. You get little notice: a cattle visit must take place within 48 hours of first contact. The inspector reads ear tags and checks passports and your holding register against what was reported. Problems lead to movement restrictions on animals or the whole herd. Cross-compliance ended in England on 31 December 2023 but still applies in Wales and Scotland.
In England it is the Rural Payments Agency. GOV.UK says the RPA's field officers carry out cattle visits, and its cattle guidance covers England and Wales. Sheep and goat holdings are visited by RPA field officers or other authorised officers, who compare your register with movements reported to the Livestock Information Service.
In Scotland the Scottish Government inspects through RPID, comparing your records and passports with ScotEID and ScotMoves. In Northern Ireland, DAERA examines your herd register as part of its inspections. The systems behind each nation are in our guide to ScotEID, EIDCymru and NIFAIS.
Other bodies can come in afterwards. Welfare concerns go to APHA or the local authority, and on sheep and goat holdings serious cases may be referred to Trading Standards, which could lead to prosecution. Many farmers still call all of this a cross-compliance inspection. In England that label is out of date, as the penalties section explains.
For cattle in England, GOV.UK says the RPA checks at least 3% of holdings each year, 20% at random and 80% by risk, and holdings with past problems are more likely to be visited. Scotland's RPID must inspect 3% of cattle holdings a year, according to the Rural Payments Scotland guidance.
For sheep and goats the listed risk factors include flock size, animal health, a new holding registration, the result of the last visit, a late annual inventory, the number of movements, late movement reporting and not following the standstill rule. So a flock that reports late and moves often is easier to find.
Notice is short. For cattle, the GOV.UK page says the visit must take place within 48 hours of first contact. For sheep and goats you will not usually be told, though you may get up to 48 hours. Sheep and goat visits can happen at any time of year and usually take about 5 hours. In practice that means you cannot get ready after the call. The register and the passports have to be ready all the time.
GOV.UK lists what a cattle visit looks for: that your register shows which animals are or have been on the holding, that births, movements and deaths are correctly recorded, that every animal is correctly tagged with tags matching its documents, that identification deadlines were met, that passports for animals that moved or died were passed on or returned to BCMS, and that unused ear tags are stored securely.
You must have the holding register, on paper or computer, and all passports and registration documents available. GOV.UK says it is against the law not to have documents available to check. You also supply people to gather the cattle and suitable handling facilities, and you are responsible for animal welfare during the visit. At the end you sign form CPP18 and keep a copy.
On a sheep or goat holding the officer takes a head count, checks tagging, examines 60 random animals or all of them if you have fewer, compares the register with movements reported to the Livestock Information Service, and looks at the movement documents. If tagging is wrong, more than 60 are checked where possible.
Our holding register guide covers what each book must hold.
GOV.UK does not publish a league table of failures, so I will not invent one. But the checklist above shows where things go wrong, and these are the ones I would look for in my own records first:
My reading of that checklist is that most failures are two records that disagree, not a missing animal. Reconcile them before anyone else does.
For cattle in England and Wales, GOV.UK sets out the outcomes. Passports with errors are collected, you get a receipt, and BCMS corrects them free of charge. If an animal cannot be identified you receive a Notice to Prove Identity and Traceability, must fit BCMS management tags, and cannot move it off the holding until identity is proved. If identity cannot be proved, the animal can be ordered for compulsory slaughter with no compensation.
Where a small share of the herd or records is affected, movement restrictions apply to those animals. Where more than a fifth is affected, you receive a whole-herd movement restriction notice. You then tell BCMS or submit a notice of compliance once 80% of your cattle meet the regulations. Obstructing the officer also brings a whole-herd restriction, and that includes refusing the visit, not gathering the cattle or not producing records.
On a sheep holding, a whole flock restriction applies if you have no farm records or if more than 20% of the sample lack correct tags. It is an offence to move animals under a restriction, so do not shift stock to get ahead of the problem.
In England, cross-compliance ended at midnight on 31 December 2023. GOV.UK says the underlying regulations continue to protect animal health and welfare, and that statutory bodies work with farmers to let them self-correct before formal action. So the identification rules did not go away, but the link to a Basic Payment Scheme penalty did.
GOV.UK's cattle page, last updated 14 August 2025, says cross-compliance still applies in Wales, and that penalties can include reductions to scheme claims, and prosecution. It says a court can impose fines of up to £5,000 for each animal, and prison in the worst cases. Scotland's page still ties inspections to the Cross Compliance programme, with a possible reduction in subsidy or legal action. In Northern Ireland, DAERA says register checks form part of cross-compliance inspections.
For anything specific, ask BCMS, the RPA or your local authority, and check the rules of any scheme you claim under.
Make this routine, not a panic. These are the steps I would build in:
Red Tractor assessors look at much of the same material, so one tidy set of records serves both. See our Red Tractor audit checklist.
FarmHQ is a farm office app for UK cattle and sheep farms, in beta. It keeps tags, passports, movements and the medicine book in one record, with Ask Farmer Joe drafting entries for you to confirm. See pricing.
Very little. GOV.UK says a cattle identification visit must take place within 48 hours of the Rural Payments Agency first contacting you. For sheep and goat visits you will not usually be told in advance, though you may get up to 48 hours. Keep your register and passports ready all the time.
Your whole herd is restricted, and any scheme payments due to you may be at risk. GOV.UK says obstruction includes refusing the visit, not gathering the animals, not providing handling facilities or labour, not producing records or passports, and abusive or aggressive behaviour. It is also an offence to move animals under a restriction.
In England, yes: GOV.UK says cross-compliance ended on 31 December 2023, though animal health and welfare regulations continue. The same GOV.UK cattle page says it still applies in Wales, and Scotland's inspection guidance still refers to the Cross Compliance programme. Check the nation you farm in.
On an English sheep or goat holding the officer examines 60 random animals, or all of them if you have fewer than 60. If incorrect tagging is found, more animals are checked where possible. The officer also compares your holding register with movements reported to the Livestock Information Service.