Agriculture Act 1993

28 Determination of application. E+W+S

(1) The Ministers shall not grant an application under section 27 above for approval of a transfer scheme unless they are satisfied—

(a) that the Board has taken reasonable steps to bring the principles of the scheme to the attention of persons who are registered producers,

(b) that the scheme is a qualifying scheme under Schedule 3 to this Act, and

(c) that in preparing the scheme for approval the Board has had regard to the desirability of proposing such arrangements as it considers would be likely to ensure the continuation or introduction by one or more successor bodies of—

(i) schemes for the orderly marketing of potatoes, including market intelligence and the identification of market opportunities,

(ii) research and development,

(iii) the generic promotion of potatoes,

(iv) the collection of statistics on the potato industry, and

(v) a forum for discussion of matters of common interest to producers, purchasers, retailers and consumers of potatoes,

and unless they have consulted about the principles of the scheme such persons appearing to them to be representative of the interests of producers, purchasers, retailers and consumers of potatoes as they consider appropriate.

(2) Subject to that—

(a) if the Ministers are satisfied that the scheme meets the criteria mentioned in subsection (3) below, they shall grant the application, and

(b) if they are not so satisfied, section 29 below shall apply.

(3) The criteria referred to above are—

(a) that the scheme is in the public interest;

(b) that the scheme takes account of the interests of consumers of potatoes, producers of potatoes and those who purchase potatoes otherwise than as consumers;

(c) that any provision made by the scheme for the distribution of assets to persons by reference to their being, or having been, registered producers is reasonable; and

(d) that it is unlikely that any person to whom a liability is transferred under the scheme will be unable to meet it.

(4) A scheme shall not be treated as failing to meet the criterion mentioned in subsection (3)(c) above by virtue only of the fact that it provides for any distribution of assets to persons by reference to their being, or having been, registered producers to be in proportion to their respective basic areas for the purposes of the Potato Marketing Scheme for the last year to have been prescribed a quota year under it.