Agricultural Processing and Marketing Grant Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2002

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These Regulations, which come into operation on 14th March 2002, supplement in respect of Northern Ireland the Community legislation listed in the Schedule to the Regulations (“the Community legislation”). The Community legislation inter alia provides for support to be paid from the Guidance Section of the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (“Community support”) towards investment for the improvement of the processing and marketing of agricultural products. These Regulations operate within the scope of these provisions to enable Community support to be paid towards expenditure incurred in connection with operations involving such improvements.

The Regulations implement a part of the Northern Ireland Programme for Building Sustainable Prosperity (BSP) as approved by the European Commission under Article 44 of Council Regulation (EC) No. 1257/1999 (O.J. No. L160, 26.6.1999, p. 80), and provide for the payment of Community support by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in respect of any expenditure it has approved (regulation 3). Such expenditure may be approved if it is expenditure which is in accordance with that part of the BSP which concerns the improvement of the processing and marketing of agricultural products (expenditure for which support may be granted pursuant to Articles 25 to 28 of Council Regulation (EC) No. 1257/1999 (regulation 5)).

The Regulations also provide for the making of claims for, and the payment of, grants following approval (regulations 6 and 7) and also contain provisions creating obligations on those in receipt of grants concerning the provision of information (regulation 8) and record-keeping (regulation 9).

In addition the Regulations confer powers of entry on certain authorised persons, including Officials of the Commission (regulation 10), introduce a system of penalties to be imposed in the event of a breach of obligations by granting the Department various powers to take action, up to and including termination of approval in the event of breaches of the conditions of an approval and in a number of other cases (regulations 11 to 13), provide power to recover interest on sums recovered and that these be classified as a debt (regulations 14 and 15) and create offences in respect of the furnishing of false information for the purpose of obtaining financial assistance and in respect of obstruction (regulation 16).

The Regulations revoke, subject to transitional saving, the Agricultural Processing and Marketing Grant Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996 (S.R. 1996 No. 196) (regulation 17).