The Agricultural Marketing (Northern Ireland) Order 1982

Amendment N.I.

1.—(1) Subject to the provisions of this paragraph, an amendment of a scheme may be submitted by the board to the Department for its approval. N.I.

(2) Before an amendment of a scheme is submitted to the Department under this paragraph the amendment shall be published in the prescribed manner to all registered producers and if, within the prescribed period after it has been so published, a poll on the question whether it shall be submitted to the Department is demanded by the prescribed number or the prescribed proportion, as the case may be, of the registered producers, the amendment shall not be submitted to the Department unless a poll on that question has been taken and the result thereof shows that the requisite majority of registered producers has voted in favour of its submission.

In this sub‐paragraph “prescribed” means prescribed by the scheme.

(3) Where an amendment of a scheme is duly submitted to the Department in accordance with the foregoing provisions of this paragraph, the following provisions of Article 4, that is to say, paragraphs (1) to (6), (8), (10) and (11) shall apply in relation to the amendment as if it were a scheme, but subject to the following modifications, that is to say—

(a) for paragraph (5) there shall be substituted the following paragraph—

“(5) Before making any modifications, the Department shall give notice of the proposed modifications to the board and unless, within four weeks after notice has been so given or such longer time as the Department may allow, the board notifies the Department that it assents to the modifications, the Department shall take no further action in the matter.”

(b) in paragraph (6) for the words “the more efficient production and marketing of the regulated product” there shall be substituted the words “ the more efficient operation of the scheme ”; and

(c) except in a case where the Department is required by paragraph (3) as applied by this sub‐paragraph to direct a public inquiry to be held, the provisions of paragraph (6) requiring a draft to be laid before the Assembly and approval of the draft by the Assembly before the Department approves a scheme, and the provisions of paragraph (8) requiring that the date specified in the order shall be after that on which the Assembly resolves that the scheme shall be approved, shall not apply.