The Food Industry Development Scheme 1997

Title and commencement

1.  This Scheme may be cited as the Food Industry Development Scheme 1997 and shall come into force on 1st December 1997.

Interpretation

2.  In this Scheme, unless the context otherwise requires—

“applicant” means the person who has made an application for grant under this Scheme and “application” shall be construed accordingly;

“association” means trade association and any other association of bodies which have grouped together for the purpose of making an application;

“partnership” means a group of people or businesses who have come together to carry out the objectives of an application and does not necessarily mean a legally constituted partnership, and “partners” shall be construed accordingly; and

“proposal” means an application which has been approved for payment of grant under this Scheme by the appropriate Minister.

Delegation

3.  Any discretion under this Scheme exercisable by the Secretary of State for Scotland or the Secretary of State for Wales as to the payment of grant, as to the manner and timing of payment of grant and as to the amount of grant may be exercised by the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food as his delegate and their respective functions in connection with the administration of the Scheme may be carried out by that Minister.

Scope of the Scheme

4.—(1) In accordance with the following provisions of this Scheme the appropriate Minister may pay to any person satisfying the conditions set out in paragraph 5 below a grant representing any sum up to the specified percentage of the expenditure on eligible items (as referred to in paragraph 8 below) which has been incurred by that person in carrying out a proposal for the organisation, promotion, encouragement, development, co-ordination or facilitation of the marketing in Great Britain or elsewhere of—

(a) the produce of agriculture (including horticulture);

(b) the produce of fish farming;

(c) the produce of an activity specified for the purposes of section 50(2) of the Agriculture Act 1993 by order made by the Ministers; or

(d) anything derived from produce falling within any of paragraphs (a) to (c) above.

(2) For the purposes of this Scheme, where the person referred to in sub-paragraph (1) above as satisfying those conditions is a partnership, the expenditure of each partner shall be regarded as included in partnership expenditure.

(3) In sub-paragraph (1) above “the specified percentage”, in relation to expenditure incurred on eligible items, means—

(a) in cases other than those to which paragraph (b) of this sub-paragraph applies, 50%, and

(b) in cases where contributions under paragraph 9 below have been made—

(i) such percentage as is equal to the sum of 50% of the expenditure so incurred plus 50% of the expenditure on those contributions, or

(ii) 100% of the expenditure so incurred,

whichever is the lower.

Eligibility for consideration for the payment of a grant under the Scheme

5.—(1) Applications may be made by associations or partnerships and from time to time the appropriate Minister may indicate that he will also accept applications from individual persons or bodies corporate.

(2) In order to be considered for the payment of a grant under this Scheme, an applicant must demonstrate to the satisfaction of the appropriate Minister that the purpose of the application is to improve business performance or increase business activity within the food industry.

(3) No application shall be eligible to be considered for the payment of a grant under this Scheme unless the applicant declares—

(a) that the application would not be carried out but for the grant; and

(b) that no assistance in respect of expenditure for which the grant is to be made is to be given under any enactment other than section 50 of the Agriculture Act 1993 or under any instrument of the European Economic Community.

Applications for grants under the Scheme

6.—(1) Any person wishing to be considered for the payment of a grant under this Scheme shall apply for such a grant in such a way as the appropriate Minister may from time to time determine.

(2) The appropriate Minister shall, from time to time, invite applications for grant, under this Scheme, such applications to be submitted by such deadlines as he decides.

(3) In considering whether or not to approve an application for a grant under this Scheme the appropriate Minister—

(a) shall have regard to the considerations set out in Schedule 1 to this Scheme; and

(b) may seek the advice of any specialist in order to assess the merits of the proposal to which the application relates.

(4) A person may apply for more than one grant under this Scheme.

(5) In making an offer to pay a grant under this Scheme, the appropriate Minister shall indicate to the applicant how long the proposal to which the grant relates will be funded under it, and any particular conditions which will apply to that grant.

(6) Each application shall contain the following information—

(a) an indication of the area of the food industry it aims to benefit;

(b) an explanation of why payment of grant under this Scheme is necessary to achieve the benefits described in the application;

(c) evidence of the financial position of the applicant and (if the applicant is a partnership) of the partners concerned with the application;

(d) a description of the objectives of the application and of the benefit to the food industry and to the United Kingdom’s economy should grant under this Scheme be paid to the applicant;

(e) a description as to how progress towards the achievement of objectives contained in the application will be monitored;

(f) a description as to how the success of the application would be measured on completion if grant aid were to be paid to the applicant under this Scheme; and

(g) a plan for the application of the results of achieving those objectives and for the dissemination of key information to the relevant parts of the food industry.

Priority in approving applications under the Food Industry Development Scheme

7.—(1) In the event that the total of the grant sought at a particular time by all applicants whose applications are suitable to be approved under the conditions set out in this Scheme exceeds the funds then available to the appropriate Minister to make grant payments, then the appropriate Minister shall so approve them in order of priority based on which of the applications in question best meets the considerations set out in Schedule 1 to this Scheme, until the availability of the funds in question is exhausted.

(2) In Schedule 1 to this Scheme, “small and medium sized enterprises” means enterprises which the appropriate Minister considers to be such, and for the purpose of considering that matter, he may take into account the meaning given in—

(a) the Annex to Commission Recommendation 96/280/EC(1) on the definition of small and medium sized enterprises, and

(b) any future amendment to or replacement of that Recommendation.

Items eligible for payments of grant

8.  The items expenditure on which is eligible for payments of grant under this Scheme are set out in Schedule 2 and in paragraph 9 of this Scheme.

Contributions from non-applicants

9.—(1) Where contributions to expenditure on proposal items referred to in paragraph 8 above are made by a person within this paragraph, those contributions shall be regarded as items expenditure on which is eligible for payment of grant under this Scheme.

(2) A person comes within this paragraph where—

(a) he is not the applicant or a partner of the applicant; and

(b) no charge has been or is to be made for his contributions.

Use of information

10.—(1) Subject to sub-paragraph (2) of this paragraph, no person may be paid a grant under this Scheme unless he has given to the appropriate Minister his written consent to the use by that Minister of information about the proposal for which the grant is sought.

(2) Such consent may be given subject to the condition that to the extent that the applicant can show to the appropriate Minister’s satisfaction, that disclosure of such information would give rise to a significant risk of detriment to the applicant’s commercial interests, then no such disclosure shall take place.

Record-keeping

11.  Each person to whom a grant is paid under this Scheme shall—

(a) keep records of all financial transactions connected with the proposal to which the grant relates for a period of at least one year after the cessation of the funding of that proposal; and

(b) comply with any reasonable request made by any person duly authorised by the appropriate Minister for the purposes of this Scheme to disclose to that person any of the records referred to in sub-paragraph (a) of this paragraph.

Prior written consent

12.  The carrying out of any proposal funded under this Scheme shall not be commenced without the written consent of the appropriate Minister.

Variation and withdrawal of proposals

13.—(1) The appropriate Minister may permit the recipient of a grant under this Scheme—

(a) to vary the proposal to which the grant relates; or

(b) to withdraw that proposal,

on written notice of such variation or withdrawal being given to him by that recipient.

(2) Where a proposal is withdrawn in accordance with sub-paragraph (1)(b) of this paragraph the appropriate Minister may on demand recover the whole or any part of a grant already paid with reference to the proposal.

Payment of grant

14.  Unless the appropriate Minister otherwise agrees in writing, each claim for payment of grant must be accompanied by a written report which shall include—

(a) details of progress of any work in accordance with any time-scale agreed as part of the conditions for payment of grant;

(b) any change in the nature or scale of the proposal; and

(c) any change in the ownership of, or beneficial interest in, any asset purchased as part of the proposal.

Right to inspect

15.  It shall be a condition of any payment of grant under the Scheme that any person duly authorised by the appropriate Minister shall have the right to inspect at any reasonable time any work carried out in connection with the proposal for which grant has been approved and to require such further information to be supplied by the applicant as would appear to him to be necessary.

Donoughue

Parliamentary Secretary Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food

4th November 1997

Sewel

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Scottish Office

4th November 1997

Signed by authority of the Secretary of State for Wales

Win Griffiths

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Welsh Office

7th November 1997

We approve,

Jon Owen Jones

Graham Allen

Two of the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury

5th November 1997