Following the launch of the County Parish Holding (CPH) PDF application form last year, we’ve made significant improvements to this service - customers can now apply for a CPH number using our new online form.
Anyone keeping livestock in England, including as pets or for a hobby, needs a CPH number for the land or building where they keep them – this allows the animals to be traced to prevent and control the spread of diseases.
Our new online form, launched on 16 October, allows livestock keepers who are not already registered on the Rural Payments service to get registered on the service and obtain a CPH for the land where they’ll keep livestock at the same time.
While the previous version of the form was a PDF that needed to be saved and attached to an email, the new version can be filled in and submitted entirely in your browser, simplifying the steps needed to apply for a CPH number. We’ve also made other improvements to the form including:
- clarifying information that users have told us was unclear
- adding some useful hints and links along the way to help you complete the fields as you go through the form
- adding form validation which flags up some potential issues before the form is submitted, to reduce the risk of error when applying
- a summary page which allows you to check your answers before submitting the form
In addition to this, we've also improved the Apply for a CPH number guidance on GOV.UK to make it as clear and user-friendly as possible.
We’ve made these updates based on feedback and user research, and we will continue to work with farmers, hobby livestock keepers, rural businesses and farming organisations to make sure our processes are clear and our services easy to access.