Dairy Produce Quotas (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2001

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These Regulations, which come into operation on 23rd February 2001, further amend the Dairy Produce Quotas Regulations 1997 (S.I. 1997/733) (“the principal Regulations”) in so far as they apply to Northern Ireland.

The principal change introduced by these Regulations is provision for the award of quota being the specific quota increases for allocation to Northern Ireland pursuant to Council Regulation (EEC) No. 3950/92 (OJ No. L405, 31.12.92, p. 1) as last amended by Council Regulation (EC) No. 1256/99 (OJ No. L160, 26.6.99, p. 73) (regulations 9 and 16). Awards shall be made to producers who had an aggregate of direct sales quota and wholesale quota on 1st April 1999 of less than 250,000 litres and the aggregate of whose direct sales and wholesale deliveries in the quota year ending on 31st March 1999 was not less than 70% of the aggregate of their direct sales quota and wholesale quota on 1st April 1998 so that each producer has his wholesale quota as at 1st April 1999 increased by the same percentage with effect from the date of the award.

The requirement for direct sales and wholesale deliveries in the quota year ending on 31st March 1999 of not less than 70% of the aggregate of direct sales and wholesale quota at 1st April 1998 will not apply where the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (“the Department”) is satisfied that exceptional circumstances (as listed in regulation 16) resulting in a significant fall in a producer’s milk production or a significant failure to achieve a planned increase in a producer’s milk production have occurred in that quota year. Awards shall not be made to producers who between 1st April 1999 and the date of the award have transferred all of their direct sales and wholesale quota other than on inheritance, by gift or on a temporary basis. The amount of quota which may be awarded is limited to the amount which would have increased the producer’s aggregate of direct sales and wholesale quota to 250,000 litres on 1st April 1999. In the case of the transfer of a holding by way of inheritance or gift between 1st April 1999 and the date of the award there is provision for the award to be allocated to those who inherited or received the gift.

The Department will serve a notice on each producer in Northern Ireland informing him whether it is minded to award him quota and, if so, the amount. A producer may, within 21 days of service of this notice, request a review of his case by the Department. If a producer is aggrieved by the outcome of a review, he may, within 21 days of service of a notice informing him of the outcome of the review, appeal to the Dairy Produce Quota Tribunal for Northern Ireland.

Apart from minor and drafting amendments the Regulations also amend the principal Regulations by—

(a) extending the definition of “Community compensation scheme” to include that instituted by Council Regulation (EC) No. 2330/98 (OJ No. L291, 30.10.98, p. 4) providing for an offer of compensation to certain producers of milk and milk products temporarily restricted in carrying out their trade (regulation 3(a));

(b) removing Islay from the particular milk quota arrangements applying in the Scottish Islands and clarifying the extent and application of those arrangements (regulations 3(b) and 4);

(c) extending the period (from 28 to 56 days, subject to a final date of 14th May in the next following quota year) within which purchasers shall notify the Intervention Board of any producers newly registering with them (regulation 5(a)(ii));

(d) way of new regulation 6(4A) of the principal Regulations, making clear who, as between an original purchaser and a new purchaser of a producer’s milk, is permitted to apply for adjustments to his quota consequent upon subsequent changes to the representative fat content of that producer’s milk (regulation 5(c));

(e) removing the requirement (previously at regulation 11(5) of the principal Regulations) which applied in the case of a transfer of quota made without there also being a transfer of land that, after the transfer has been approved by the Intervention Board, the transferee furnish the Board with a statement of used and unused quota available both to him and to the transferor on the date of transfer (regulation 6(c));

(f) way of an amended regulation 11(7) of the principal Regulations, extending the Intervention Board’s ability to release a transferee from his undertaking, so that the power applies not only where exceptional circumstances result in a significant fall in milk production, but also where they result in a significant failure to achieve a planned increase in milk production (regulation 6(d));

(g) clarifying the basis on which temporary reallocations of surplus quota may be made (regulation 7(a)) and removing from the category of producers eligible to receive such temporary reallocations those who are affected by a formal acknowledgement of an error in their levy calculation (regulation 7(b));

(h) enabling the Intervention Board, in the context of a producer’s permanent conversion of quota and in the event that exceptional circumstances have resulted in a significant fall in milk production or a significant failure to achieve a planned increase in milk production, to release that producer from the restriction that would otherwise prevent him from transferring out quota of the type to which he has converted in the same quota year as the one in which that conversion took place (regulation 8);

(i) permitting the Intervention Board to require “relevant persons” (as defined in regulation 30(6) of the principal Regulations) to keep and retain records (regulation 12);

(j) extending the offence described in regulation 31(1)(b) of the principal Regulations to include the causing of the elements of that offence (regulation 13).