The Rural Development Programme Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations make provision for the implementation in Northern Ireland of the European Regulations (as defined in Schedule 1) relating to the administration of the Rural Development Programme. The Rural Development Programme 2014 - 2020 was approved by European Commission Decision C(2015) 6018 of 25^th August 2015 and can be downloaded from http://www.dardni.gov.uk/2014-2020-rdp-version-1.2.pdf. The provisions in the EU legislation are directly applicable and have direct effect in a member state. These Regulations provide a domestic legal framework for the operation of the EU Regulations in Northern Ireland.

Regulations 3 and 4 provide the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (‘the Department’) with the power to pay financial assistance in respect of expenditure incurred or income foregone by a beneficiary.

Regulations 5 and 7 provide the Department with the power to determine the form of a Rural Development application or claim. Regulation 6 allows the Department to approve or reject operations for the receipt of financial assistance and sets out the process to be followed when approvals are to be varied.

Regulation 8 and 11 impose obligations concerning the provision of information and record-keeping.

Regulation 9 provides powers of entry to land and premises for the purposes of enforcing these regulations to persons authorised by the Department. Regulation 10 sets out the powers of such authorised persons.

Regulation 12 sets the maximum time (90 days) which beneficiaries have to notify the Department of a request for payment following a transfer of land. Regulation 13 obliges the Department to publish a definition of agricultural land for the purposes of Agri-environment-climate schemes.

Regulation 14 confers on the Department the power to determine that a rural development beneficiary has breached the terms of a commitment or other requirement. Regulation 15 confers powers of recovery and other powers on the Department where there has been such a determination.

Regulation 16 allows for payments due to the Department from beneficiaries to be treated by the Department as debt. Regulation 17 sets out how interest to be charged on amounts owed to the Department as debt will be calculated.

Regulation 18 provides for debts owed to the Department to be deducted from future payments to that beneficiary.

Regulations 19 and 20 make it an offence to obstruct, fail to provide information without reasonable cause or furnish false or misleading information to a person acting to implement these Regulations and establishes the penalties which may be imposed.

Regulation 21 provides the Department with the power to require a beneficiary to give an undertaking. Regulation 22 revokes, with savings, a number of Statutory Rules relating to the Northern Ireland Rural Development Programme 2007 – 2013.