UK Offence Report

Organic Farming Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999 (revoked)

Northern Ireland Statutory Rule 1999 No. 237 — creates 1 criminal offence.

1offences created
0recorded in force
0revoked
Made
20 May 1999
In force from
23 June 1999
Extent
Not stated
Subject
Agriculture, plant health, food production and rural affairs
Made under
(EEC) No. 2078/92, European Communities Act 1972

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.) — published with the instrument by the department that made it. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

These Regulations provide for the payment of aid to farmers who undertake to introduce organic farming methods and comply with certain environmental management conditions, pursuant to Article 2(1)(a) and (d) of Council Regulation (EEC) No. 2078/92 (O.J. No. L215, 30.7.92, p. 85) (“the Agri-environment Regulation”). Such aid is part of the zonal programme relating to Northern Ireland submitted by the United Kingdom to the European Commission pursuant to Article 3 of the Council Regulation. These Regulations implement certain provisions of Commission Regulation (EC) No. 746/96 (O.J. No. L102, 25.4.96, p. 19) (“the Commission Regulation”), as amended by Commission Regulation (EC) No. 435/97 (O.J. No. L67, 7.3.97, p. 2), laying down detailed rules for the application of the Agri-environment Regulation, in particular Article 11(3)(b) (which concerns the extension, during the currency of an undertaking, of the area subject to that undertaking) and Article 20 (which provides for recovery of wrongful payments with interest, a penalty system and exclusion for false declarations). The powers which are conferred by these Regulations are exercisable subject to the terms of certain other provisions of the Commission Regulation, in particular Article 10 (which restricts duplication of aid payments), Article 11 (which governs transfers of holdings which are subject to agreements or undertakings under the Agri-environment Regulation), Article 12 (force majeure) and Article 14 (which governs undertakings and procedures). The Regulations— a enable the Department of Agriculture (“the Department”) to make payments of aid, subject to specified conditions, and specify the rate of aid (regulations 3 and 4); b specify the conditions of eligibility to be satisfied by applicants for aid (regulation 5), certain procedural and formal preconditions for the acceptance of applications for aid (regulations 6 and 9), and certain restrictions on the payment of aid (regulation 7); and permit the Department to refuse applications for aid in the event that financial resources available for aid under the Regulations are insufficient (regulation 8); c provide for variations of undertakings given by applicants for aid and amendments to conversion plans (regulations 10 and 11); d provide for the payment of aid to a new occupant where there has been a change in the occupation of an organic unit or part of an organic unit due to the death of a beneficiary or otherwise (regulation 12); e impose obligations in respect of the keeping of records and confer powers of entry and inspection (regulations 13 and 14); f provide for the withholding or recovery of aid and the recovery of interest (regulations 15, 16 and 17); g provide for an offence of making a false statement, and make provision in relation to any such offence committed by a corporation (regulations 18 and 19); and h close the scheme established by the Organic Farming Aid Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1995 to further applications (regulation 20). The UKROFS standards are published by and copies are available from the Office of the Secretary to UKROFS, Room G47, Nobel House, 17 Smith Square, London SW1P 3JR. Copies of the Codes of Good Agricultural Practice for the protection of Soil, Air and Water (referred to in paragraph 10 of Schedule 2) are available free of charge from the Department of Agriculture, Annex D, Dundonald House, Upper Newtownards Road, Belfast BT4 3SB.

Offences created by this instrument

What Parliament said about it

Hansard was searched for this instrument by name and returned nothing. That is the ordinary outcome: an instrument laid under the negative procedure is usually never debated, and becomes law without a word said about it in either House.

How Parliament handled it

Parliament's Statutory Instruments service records procedure from May 2017 onwards, and this instrument predates it. That is a limit of the source, not a statement that nothing happened.

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