Explanatory Note
(This note is not part of the Regulations)
The Intervention Board for Agricultural Produce, established by section 6(1) of the European Communities Act 1972, is to be abolished by virtue of the Intervention Board for Agricultural Produce (Abolition) Regulations 2001 (S.I. 2001/3686). Following abolition, its functions in relation to Scotland (so far as within devolved competence) are intended to be carried out on behalf of the Scottish Ministers by an executive agency of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), to be known as the Rural Payments Agency.
These Regulations–
(a) empower the Scottish Ministers to enter into agency arrangements with DEFRA for the exercise of those functions formerly carried out by the Board to be carried out by Rural Payments Agency on their behalf;S
(b) make amendments to secondary legislation, in relation to Scotland, which are consequential to the abolition of the Board; andS
make transitional provisions to ensure continuity in the arrangements in place at present in connection with the functions transferred, insofar as they relate to those consequential provisions.