Organic Farming Aid (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996

Amendment of the principal Regulations

9.  After regulation 11 (withholding and recovery of aid) there shall be added the following regulations—

“Recovery of interest

11A.— (1) Where a payment of aid is paid to a beneficiary by the Department and, by virtue of Article 20(1) of the Commission Regulation (which provides for recovery of wrongful payments with interest), the beneficiary is required to reimburse all or part of the payment with interest, the rate of interest shall be one percentage point above LIBOR on a day to day basis.

(2) For the purposes of this regulation, LIBOR means the sterling three month London interbank offered rate in force during the period specified in Article 20(1) of the Commission Regulation.

(3) In any proceedings relating to this regulation, a certificate of the Department stating the LIBOR applicable during a period specified in the certificate shall also be conclusive evidence of the rate applicable in the specified period if the certificate also states that the Bank of England notified the Department of that rate.

Recovery of payments

11B.   In any case, where an amount falls to be paid to the Department by virtue of (or by virtue of action taken under) these Regulations or the Commission Regulation the amount so falling to be paid shall be recoverable as a civil debt”.