1.—(1) The Department shall compile and maintain, in accordance with paragraph 2, a list (to be called its rural settlement list).
(2) The first rural settlement list shall have effect for a financial year or such lesser period ending on 31st March as the Department may determine and a subsequent list is to have effect for each financial year and shall identify for that year or period or, as the case may be, each financial year any settlements mentioned in sub-paragraph (3).
(3) The settlements referred to in sub-paragraph (2) are those which—
(a)appear to the Department to have had a population of not more than 3,000 on the last 31st December before the beginning of the financial year in question, and
(b)in that financial year are wholly or partly within an area designated by the Department by order subject to negative resolution as a rural area for the purposes of this paragraph.
(4) A rural settlement list shall identify the boundaries of each settlement (whether by defining the boundaries or referring to boundaries defined in a map or other document).
(5) An order under sub-paragraph (3)(b) may provide for designating as a rural area any area for the time being identified by any person, in any manner, specified in the order.
(6) Sub-paragraph (1) does not apply to the Department in respect of any financial year for which there are no such settlements as are mentioned in sub-paragraph (3) (and, accordingly, if the Department has compiled a rural settlement list, it shall cease to maintain that list).