Fisheries Act 1981

PART II Financial Assistance for Sea Fish Industry

15 Schemes of financial assistance

(1) The Ministers may, in accordance with a scheme made by them with the approval of the Treasury, make grants or loans for the purpose of re-organising, developing or promoting the sea fish industry or of contributing to the expenses of those engaged in it.

(2) A scheme under this section may be limited so as to apply to a specified part or area of the United Kingdom and may authorise the Ministers to make provision for any purpose specified in the scheme.

(3) A scheme under this section shall be laid before Parliament after being made and shall cease to have effect (without prejudice to anything previously done thereunder or to the making of a new scheme) after the expiration of the period of forty days beginning with the day on which it is made unless within that period it has been approved by a resolution of each House of Parliament.

(4) In reckoning any period under subsection (3) above no account shall be taken of any time during which Parliament is dissolved or prorogued or during which both Houses are adjourned for more than four days.

(5) Any scheme in force immediately before the coming into force of this section under section 49 of the [1970 c. 11.] Sea Fish Industry Act 1970 (white fish and herring subsidies) shall have effect as if made under this section.

16 Administration of schemes by Sea Fish Industry Authority

(1) Without prejudice to section 2(5) above, the Ministers may require the Sea Fish Industry Authority to administer for them any scheme made by them under this Part of this Act and where the Authority has been so required it shall administer the scheme accordingly and may exercise any discretion vested under the scheme in the Ministers.

(2) Any functions of the Authority in relation to a scheme under this Part of this Act shall be discharged by the members appointed under section 1(3) above to the exclusion of the other members.

(3) Where the Authority has been required to administer a scheme under subsection (1) above it shall keep such accounts with respect to payments made by or to it under the scheme as may be directed by the Ministers with the approval of the Treasury and shall prepare in respect of each financial year a statement of the accounts in such form and giving such information as may be so directed.

(4) The accounts for each financial year shall, in accordance with a scheme of audit approved by the Ministers, be audited by the persons appointed in respect of that year to audit the other accounts of the Authority and the auditors shall be furnished by the Authority with copies of the statement of accounts.

(5) The auditors shall complete the audit of the accounts and send the Ministers copies of the statement of accounts and of their report on the accounts and the statement as soon as possible after the end of the financial year to which they relate and in any event not later than 30th September following the end of that year; and the Ministers shall lay copies of the statement and report before Parliament.

(6) The Ministers and the Comptroller and Auditor Genera] shall be entitled to inspect all books, papers and other records of the Authority relating to, or to matters dealt with in, the accounts required to be kept pursuant to this section.

17 Offences in connection with schemes

Any person who—

(a) in furnishing any information in purported compliance with a requirement imposed by a scheme made under this Part of this Act makes a statement which he knows to be false in a material particular or recklessly makes a statement which is false in a material particular; or

(b) in purported compliance with a requirement imposed by such a scheme produces a document which he knows to be false in a material particular or recklessly produces a document which is false in a material particular; or

(c) wilfully refuses to supply any information, make any return or produce any document when required to do so by or under any such scheme,

shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £1,000.

18 Interpretation of Part II

(1) In this Part of this Act—

• " the Ministers " means—

  (a)

  in relation to a scheme not extending outside England, the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food;

  (b)

  in relation to a scheme not extending outside Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland respectively, the Secretary of State concerned with the sea fish industry in that country ;

  (c)

  in relation to a scheme extending to the whole or part of two or more of the countries mentioned in paragraphs (a) and (b) above, the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (if those countries include England) and the Secretary of State concerned with the sea fish industry in each of the countries (other than England) to the whole or part of which the scheme extends; but a scheme made by two or more Ministers may provide for payments under the scheme to be made by any of them;

• " sea fish" means fish of any kind found in the sea, including shellfish but not salmon or migratory trout.

(2) For the purposes of this Part of this Act "the sea fish industry " means the sea fish industry in the United Kingdom and a person shall be regarded as engaged in the sea fish industry if—

(a) he carries on or is employed in the business of operating vessels for catching or processing sea fish or for transporting sea fish or sea fish products, being vessels registered in the United Kingdom ; or

(b) he carries on in the United Kingdom, or is employed in the United Kingdom in, the business of selling sea fish or sea fish products by wholesale or retail, of loading, unloading or the inland transport of sea fish or sea fish products or of processing sea fish (including the business of a fish fryer).