The Dairy Produce Quotas Amendment (No. 2) (Scotland) Regulations 2000

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations, which come into force on 29th November 2000, further amend the Dairy Produce Quotas Regulations 1997 (S.I. 1997/733) (“the principal Regulations").

The principal changes made by these Regulations–

(a)  extend the definition of “Community compensation scheme" to include that instituted by Council Regulation (EC) No. 2330/98 providing for an offer of compensation to certain producers of milk and milk products temporarily restricted in carrying out their trade (O.J. No. L 291, 30.10.98, p.4) (regulation 3(a)); S

(b)  remove Islay from the particular milk-quota arrangements applying in the Scottish Islands (regulation 3(b)) and clarify the extent and application of those arrangements (regulation 4); S

(c)  extend 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)); S

(d)  by way of new regulation 6(4A) to the principal Regulations make 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)); S

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

(f)  by way of an amended regulation 11(7) to the principal Regulations, extend 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)); S

(g)  by way of an amended regulation 14(1) of the principal Regulations clarify the basis on which temporary allocations of surplus quota may be made (regulation 7(a)); S

(h)  remove from the category of producers eligible to receive a temporary reallocation of surplus quota producers who are affected by a formal acknowledgement of an error in their levy calculation (regulation 7(b) and (c)); S

(i)  enable 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); S

(j)  permit the Intervention Board to require relevant persons to keep and retain records (regulation 11) and make it an offence to fail to observe such a requirement (regulation 12(b)); S

(k)  extend the offence described in regulation 31(1)(b) of the principal Regulations to include the causing of the elements of that offence (regulation 12(a)). S