Slaughter Premium Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2001

Withholding and recovery of slaughter premium

10.—(1) The Department may withhold, or recover on demand, the whole or any part of any slaughter premium claimed from or granted by it in any of the following circumstances—

(a) where the grant of a slaughter premium to the claimant in question would not, or does not, comply with the Community rules;

(b) where, at any time between the submission of the claim in respect thereof and its slaughter, a premium animal was not—

(i) subject to an approved identification as required by Article 4 of the Cattle Identification (No. 2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998;

(ii) identified with an ear tag in accordance with which Article 14 of the Tuberculosis Control Order (Northern Ireland) 1964 applied;

(iii) identified in accordance with Regulation 4 of the Cattle Identification (Enforcement) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998(1);

(iv) identified and registered in accordance with Council Regulation 820/97 and Commission Regulation (EC) No. 2629/97 laying down detailed rules for the implementation of Council Regulation (EC) No. 820/97 as regards eartags, holding registers and passports in the framework of the system for the identification and registration of bovine animals; or

(v) identified and registered in accordance with Regulation 1760/2000.

(c) where the conditions specified in regulation 6(1) have not been satisfied; or

(d) where the claimant in question, or an officer, employee, servant or agent of that claimant, intentionally obstructs an authorised person, or a person accompanying an authorised person and acting under his instructions, from exercising any power conferred by regulations 14 or 15, or fails without reasonable excuse to comply with a requirement made by an authorised person under regulation 15, or with a request made by an authorised person under regulation 16; and

(e) where the claimant has, for the purpose of obtaining for himself or any other person the grant of slaughter premium, knowingly or recklessly made a statement or furnished any information which is false or misleading in a material particular.

(2) Before taking any step specified in paragraph (1)(a) to (e) the Department shall—

(a) give to the claimant a written explanation of the reasons for the step proposed to be taken;

(b) afford the claimant the opportunity of making written representations within such time as the Department considers reasonable; and

(c) consider any such representations.

(3) This regulation applies without prejudice to any dispute procedure contained in an undertaking made under these Regulations.

(4) In this regulation, “dispute procedure” means a mechanism for resolving disputes between the Department and the claimant.

(1)

S.R. 1998 No. 27