Horticulture (Special Payments) Act 1974

2 Revocation of approval and recovery of payment

(1) If at any time after the appropriate Minister has approved any proposals under a scheme it appears to that Minister—

(a) that any condition subject to which the approval was given or any payment has been made has not been complied with ; or

(b) that any operation in respect of which any payment is to be made has been badly carried out or has been or is being unreasonably delayed or is unlikely to be completed or that adequate facilities for inspection of the land have not been given ; or

(c) that the person by whom the application for that approval or for the making of that payment was made gave information on any matters relevant to the giving of the approval or the making of the payment which was false or misleading in a material respect,

the appropriate Minister may, after compliance with subsection (2) below, revoke the approval in whole or in part and thereupon the Minister, or as the case may be the Secretary of State, may on demand recover any payment or any part of a payment made by him by reference to the proposals.

(2) Before revoking an approval under this section the appropriate Minister—

(a) shall give to any person to whom any payment would be payable, or from whom any such payment would be recoverable, a written notification of the reasons for the action proposed to be taken by the appropriate Minister; and

(b) shall afford to each such person an opportunity of appearing before and being heard by a person appointed for the purpose by the appropriate Minister ; and

(c) shall consider the report by a person so appointed and supply a copy of the report to each person entitled to appear before the person submitting it.