I’ve heard on the DofE grapevine that we will be losing another admin burden, in the form of the Expedition Notification forms - aka the green forms. The expedition notification number has been removed from eDofE, the and the Wild Country Panels are being closed. It will mean a loss of access to local knowledge via the panels. Panel assessors is being replaced with an assessor directory, but all in all a win as far as I’m concerned, it always felt like a needless layer of admin. One less thing to do for this years expeditions.
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Green forms are dead, TOPL is pretty dead it’s all good for the admin burden.
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Both good news
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That’s very good news. Hopefully EUF don’t generate even more admin
From what I’ve seen it’s not just on the grapevine anymore, it’s out in the wild and confirmed
Tell me more?
There is no longer a requirement to apply for TOPL when using PROW (Public Rights of Way) with groups of 15 or less (well, that requirement has been binned for a while now, but it’s being formalised in the JSP).
It is still required for EUFs though as in general they aren’t PROW.
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Ahhh I thought it was something newer than that…
Carry on 
Those groups must also be in civies as far as I recall. Which of course is no problem for D of E or general AT walking, but would likely still mean that TOPL is required for EUF even if the land has a public right of way since the most common use of such land would be in uniform.
Yep, that’s correct. Also most uses of the EUF would involve being off the PROW too, unless you were just wandering up & down a footpath 
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TOPL is a funny one… “Private land”.
I’ve questioned the need for TOPL for our EUF because the area is Access Land under CROW.
“You must have the landowners permission in writing”… But it’s ACCESS LAND…
*Of course this is largely theoretical - it’s generally just easier to fill the damned TOPL form; though getting the National Trust to give written permission has proved to be like pulling teeth.
I’m also keenly aware that some of the activities that we (and every other member of the public) engages in - such as a playing sport on the area - is technically prohibited under the terms of CROW.
Yep, and this is one of those instances where the letter of the changes to the JSP make instances such as this difficult.
Thus I shall be applying the spirit of the regulation rather than the letter. Unfortunately I have no involvement in EUFs however so that’s out of my hands really.
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Not in my neck of the woods.
I thought TOPL was for tracking units and if they broke a farmers field they would know where to send the bill.
Why do you say it’s not in your neck of the woods? The sub-15 PROW thing has been formalised, agreed by MOD and will go in the JSP at the next update.
I can provide you an email trail confirming tha should you wish. No need to be doing unnecessary admin.
How does this work in Scotland? If I remember correctly they don’t have rights of way (and aren’t shown on OS maps) and have access rights to most land?
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Good question! This is another good example of the clumsy wording causing confusion and requiring application of the spirit rather than the letter in my view.
They do have rights of way, there’s just no consolidated map of them and they can disappear after a period of non-use. They are often on the maps as paths / tracks but aren’t marked as ‘proper’ rights of way as you’d expect.
Taking into account Scotland’s much wider access as well I’d say anything sub-15 in civvies and I wouldn’t bother with TOPL. Not sure if that’s how it is being applied up there though, that’s just my thought process.
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