The Common Agricultural Policy (Wine) Regulations 1996

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations, which apply throughout the United Kingdom and come into force on 1st April 1996, provide for the enforcement of EC Regulations (as specified in Schedules 1 and 2) concerned with the production and marketing of wine and related products. They revoke and re-enact with amendments the provisions of the Common Agricultural Policy (Wine) Regulations 1995 (S.I. 1995/615).

The Regulations—

(i) designate competent authorities, agencies and a liaison authority for the purposes of enforcement (regulation 3);

(ii) define “medium dry” for the purposes of labelling and description (regulation 4);

(iii) specify conditions for the use of geographical ascriptions for the designation of table wine (regulation 5);

(iv) exempt certain products from provisions relating to information required on labels (regulation 6);

(v) permit the planting for certain purposes of vine varieties whose planting would otherwise be prohibited (regulation 7);

(vi) provide for powers of inspection and enforcement (regulation 8);

(vii) authorise controls on the movement of wine sector products and provide for specification as to whether and what steps are called for in order to ensure that controls on movement are withdrawn (regulations 9 and 10);

(viii) provide for reviews of prohibitions etc, on movement of wine-sector products and notification of rights of review (regulation 11);

(ix) relieve authorised officers of personal liability for acts done by them in execution of the Regulations (regulation 12);

(x) confer on courts (other than courts in Scotland) before which proceedings are brought powers in relation to the analysis and examination of samples (regulation 13);

(xi) specify the regions in the United Kingdom for producing quality wines psr (regulation 15);

(xii) specify the list of vine varieties, minimum natural alcoholic strength, maximum yield per hectare and analytical test in the production of quality wine psr and permit the production of such wine in areas of immediate proximity to the specified regions (regulations 16 to 20); and

(xiii) prescribe offences and penalties and provide defences (regulations 21 to 25).

The Schedules have been revised and brought up to date so as to include references to any secondary legislation of the European Community which has been adopted or identified as requiring inclusion since the Common Agricultural Policy (Wine) Regulations 1995 came into force and to delete references to any such secondary legislation which has been repealed or superseded or has become redundant. Subject to that, and to minor drafting changes, the format of these Regulations follows that used in the revoked 1995 Regulations, save that the review procedure in regulation 11 and the requirement, in regulation 9, to specify whether and what steps are called for to ensure that controls on movement are withdrawn are introduced in these Regulations, and so is the limitation, in regulation 13, of the power of courts in relation to analysis and examination of samples to courts outside Scotland, and so is the application, in regulations 21 to 23, of the concepts of the statutory maximum and the standard scale to penalties for offences in Northern Ireland which were previously subject to fines at fixed sums.

In Schedule 1 each Regulation is given the title which appears in the Official Journal except in cases where the title refers to a Regulation that has been repealed or superseded. In such a case the title given in Schedule 1 refers to the superseding Regulation and the title in the Official Journal is given in a footnote. In addition, footnotes to Schedule 1 identify provisions within it which are subject to adaptations effected by the Agreement on the European Economic Area.

A Compliance Cost Assessment has been prepared and has been deposited in the library of each House of Parliament.