1 Submission of schemes.U.K.
(1)A scheme regulating the marketing of an agricultural product by the producers thereof, other than a substitutional scheme, may be submitted to the Minister for his approval by any persons who satisfy the Minister that they are substantially representative of the persons who produce that product in the area to which the scheme is applicable, and, subject to subsection (4) of this section, a substitutional scheme may be submitted to the Minister for his approval by the board or boards administering the scheme or schemes revoked by the substitutional scheme.
(2)A scheme may be applicable to Great Britain o0r any part thereof or to Great Britain or any part thereof and also to Northern Ireland or any part thereof but shall not be applicable only to Northern Ireland or a part thereof.
(3)For the purpose of satisfying himself as mentioned in subsection (1) of this section, the Minister shall have regard both to the number of persons represented and to the quantity of the agricultural product to which the scheme relates produced by them in the area to which the scheme is applicable during some recent period before the scheme is submitted.
(4)Before a substitutional scheme is submitted to the Minister under subsection (1) of this section it shall be published in the prescribed manner to all producers registered under the scheme revoked by it or (where it revokes more schemes than one) to all producers registered under each of them, and if, within the prescribed period after it has been so published to producers registered under a scheme revoked by it, a poll on the question whether it shall be submitted to the Minister is demanded by the prescribed number or the prescribed proportion, as the case may be, of the producers registered under the scheme revoked, the substitutional scheme shall not be submitted to him unless a poll on that question has been taken and the result thereof shows that the requisite majority of those producers has voted in favour of its submission.
In this subsection “prescribed” means, in relation to a scheme revoked by a substitutional scheme, prescribed by the scheme revoked.