Agriculture Act 1967

Beef Cow subsidies

12 New provision for payment of beef cow subsidies.

(1) The appropriate Minister may, in accordance with a scheme made by him with the approval of the Treasury, make lout of money provided by Parliament payments in respect of cows, or cows of prescribed descriptions, which on any prescribed date are comprised in a herd with respect to which any prescribed conditions are fulfilled, being a herd appearing to the appropriate Minister to be maintained primarily for the purpose of breeding calves for beef.

In this section " cow " means a female bovine animal which has borne a calf, or has, in the opinion of the appropriate Minister, been brought into a herd to replace one which has borne a calf, and " prescribed " means prescribed by a scheme under this section; and the payments for which provision is made by any such scheme are in this section referred to as " subsidy payments ".

(2) A scheme under this section may be made for England and Wales, for Scotland, for Northern Ireland, or for any two or all of those parts of the United Kingdom jointly.

(3) The duration of a scheme under this section shall be a period not exceeding five years.

(4) The amount which may be paid by way of subsidy payment in respect of a cow shall be such as may be specified by an order made for the purposes of the scheme in question by the appropriate Minister with the approval of the Treasury, and any such order may specify different amounts in relation to different descriptions of cows.

(5) A scheme under this section shall contain provision designed to secure that subsidy payments and payments under hill cattle schemes within the meaning of the [1946 c. 73.] Hill Farming Act 1946 are not made in respect of the same animals for the same, or substantially similar, periods.

(6) A scheme under this section—

(a) may make provision as to the persons to whom subsidy payments may be made, and for securing that no such payment shall be made unless it is applied for at such time and in such manner as the appropriate Minister may direct;

(b) may determine the minimum number of cows in respect of which subsidy payments may be made to any person;

(c) may specify the manner in which the number of cows in respect of which subsidy payments may be so made is to be computed ;

(d) may provide for the number of cows in respect of which subsidy payments would otherwise fall to be so made to be reduced, in any prescribed circumstances, to an extent specified in or determined under the scheme;

(e) may provide for subsidy payments to be withheld in any prescribed circumstances, or for the amount of any such payment to be reduced in any such circumstances to an extent specified in or determined under the scheme;

(f) may authorise the making of subsidy payments subject to such conditions as the appropriate Minister may think fit to impose ; and

(g) may contain provisions generally for securing that subsidy payments are properly made, and such incidental and supplementary provisions as appear to the appropriate Minister to be requisite or expedient for the purposes of the scheme.

(7) A scheme or order under this section—

(a) may be varied (but not, in the case of a scheme, so as to extend its duration) or revoked by a subsequent scheme or order thereunder ; and

(b) shall be made by statutory instrument subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.

(8) This section extends to Northern Ireland.