The Dairy Produce Quotas (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2004

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations come into force on 1st April 2004 and amend the Dairy Produce Quotas (Scotland) Regulations 2002 (S.I. 2002/110) (“the principal Regulations”).

The Regulations implement Council Regulation (EC) No. 1788/2003 establishing a levy in the milk and milk products sector (O.J. No. L 270, 21.10.2003, p.123) (“the Council Regulation”) and also the European Court of Justice’s judgment in case C-401/99 Peter Heinrich Thomsen v Amt für ländliche Räume Husum [2002] ECR I-5775. The Thomsen judgment confirmed, in relation to a lessor on expiry of a lease, that milk quota may generally be held only by a “producer” within the meaning of what is now Article 5(c) of the Council Regulation.

The Regulations amend the principal Regulations to–

(a) replace the definition of “Scottish Islands area” (regulation 4);

(b) continue to restrict quota held within Scottish Island areas to use within those areas (regulation 5);

(c) make general provision for the transfer, within each United Kingdom quota region, of quota without transfer of land (regulation 9);

(d) maintain the registration obligations of those no longer producing and marketing milk until their quota has been transferred or withdrawn (regulations 15 and 16);

(e) extend to understatements the administrative penalties for inaccurate summaries from purchasers, and incorrect declarations from direct sellers, which currently apply only to overstatements (regulation 18);

(f) revise the provisions on confiscation and restoration of quota by applying the time limit prescribed for restoration by the Council Regulation by restricting quota holding to producers, by updating the references to the Council Regulation, and by making administrative changes (regulations 19);

(g) replace the definition of “the Council Regulation” (regulation 20); and

(h) update references to the Council Regulation.

A Regulatory Impact Assessment has been prepared and placed in the Scottish Parliament Reference Centre. Copies of the map referred to in the definition of Scottish Islands area inserted in the principal Regulations by regulation 4 and the Regulatory Impact Assessment are available from the Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department at Pentland House, 47 Robb’s Loan, Edinburgh, EH14 1TY.