The Habitat (Salt-Marsh) (Amendment) Regulations 1995

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Habitat (Salt-Marsh) Regulations 1994 (S.I. 1994/1293).

The Regulations enable beneficiaries under the Habitat (Salt-Marsh) Regulations 1994 to take advantage of the option in Article 1(2) of Council Regulation (EC) No. 1460/95 of 22 June 1995, amending Regulation (EEC) No. 1765/92 establishing a support system for producers of certain arable crops (OJ No. L144, 28.6.95, p.1). That Article makes provision for allowing land which has been set aside pursuant to a scheme made under Council Regulation (EEC) No. 2078/92 of 30 June 1992 on agricultural production methods compatible with the requirements of the protection of the environment and the maintenance of the countryside (OJ No. L215, 30.7.92, p.85) to be counted as being set aside for the purposes of the set-aside requirement of Article 7(1) of Council Regulation (EEC) 1765/92 of 30 June 1992 establishing a support system for the producers of certain arable crops (OJ No. L181, 1.7.92, p.12) as last amended by Council Regulation (EC) No. 1460/95.

The Regulations add a new payment rate for aid for set-aside land managed in accordance with the management obligations in the Habitat (Salt-Marsh) Regulations 1994 (regulation 6). The new payment rate applies to land which the beneficiary declared in his application form that he intended to count as being set-aside for the purposes of Article 7(1) of Council Regulation (EEC) 1765/92 (“set-aside land”). Provision is made for the beneficiary to alter the area of land to be counted as set-aside land during the management period (regulation 7). The requirements concerning the information to be included in the application and supplied at the time of the claim for payment of aid are also amended (regulations 4 and 8). The provisions regarding recovery are altered to give the Minister power to recover the difference between the new payment rate and the payment rate for land that was arable land at the start of the management period, if a beneficiary counts land as being set-aside for the purposes of Article 7(1) of Council Regulation (EEC) 1765/92, where that land is not set-aside land.