Peatland ACTION - Requests for variation to grant offer

         

This guidance is for all applicants to the NatureScot Peatland ACTION restoration fund. 

To help us manage the scale and cost of requests for variation to offers, particularly requests for additional funds, our approach to considering requests is set out below.

Variation to grant offer

Following each annual application round, Peatland ACTION allocates all available budget to new projects. Our ability to support project variations, where increased funds are requested, will therefore be limited. Our default position will be to reconsider the project design to reprioritise restoration works, agree what is achievable within the approved budget, and consider elements that can be removed or scaled back. Your Peatland ACTION Officer and Funding Officer can provide support to consider any reprioritising of works to ensure hydrological integrity of the project is maintained.

1.  We will not pay claims for any unapproved works or cost increases. We will only pay claims where there is prior written approval for the variant works or cost increase from a Peatland ACTION Funding Officer.

2.  We will only approve requests for additional funds by exception. Agents and contractors must work together to ensure that under-mapping or additional site complexity issues arising during delivery are raised in writing to both the Funding Officer and Peatland ACTION Officer within five working days of the issue arising on site.

3.  Only where the need is justified will we consider offering additional funds (subject to budget availability). Justification for ‘need’ will require an assessment to determine that additional features/restoration works are essential to the integrity of the restored project area. Value For Money will be re-assessed for all requests for additional funds. We may, by exception, request that the project is re-tendered where the scale of change is significant e.g. due to significant under-mapping.

To minimise potential variations to grant offers, the level of ground truthing undertaken should be commensurate with size and complexity of the site. We recognise that ground truthing the maps supporting project application submissions will not cover every restoration feature. There may also be some environmental protection measures required that are additional to those already identified.  These omissions sometimes only become apparent once a contractor is actively restoring the site. Therefore, it is important that these necessary works are completed to ensure the integrity of the overall restoration work.

To support our approach to variations to grant offers and ensure all necessary works are completed, a GIS file of any additional proposed works must be supplied to the Funding Officer and Peatland ACTION Officer within five working days. This must be accompanied by supporting information explaining the rationale for the additional works and the likelihood of occurrence elsewhere on the site.  To allow a rapid assessment, supporting information should be sufficiently detailed.  Relevant data should include ground-truthing of representative plots within the site, and drone data of affected restoration features.  This will enable a timely assessment of additional costs to ascertain whether any issues such as under-mapping or additional site complexity are likely to be encountered elsewhere on the site.  We will consider how best to accommodate additional costs within budget constraints. A Peatland ACTION Officer visit to the site may be necessary so early dialogue with the Peatland ACTION Officer is therefore strongly advised. 

4. Funding is awarded per NatureScot financial year (1 April to 31 March). We will not allow any underspend to be carried forward into a new financial year. Any underspend at the end of a financial year will be retained by NatureScot. It will not be carried forward to any future years of the Grant, where these exist. Notwithstanding the foregoing, we may consider carrying forward underspend in exceptional circumstances where NatureScot considers it is in the public interest. This variation to the grant offer request must made to the Funding Offer in a timely manner and is to the be formally agreed in writing.