Livestock Rearing Act 1951



Livestock Rearing Act , 1951

(14 & 15 Geo. 6) CHAPTER 18

An Act to extend and amend the provisions of the Hill Farming Act, 1946, relating to the rehabilitation of hill farming land, the payment of subsidies in respect of hill sheep and hill cattle and the control of rams in England and Wales; to make fresh provision with respect to the exercise of the functions under that Act of the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries and the Secretary of State; and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.

[21st March 1951]

Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—

S-1 Extension of class of land for improvement of which grants may be made under the principal Act.

1 Extension of class of land for improvement of which grants may be made under the principal Act.

(1) The class of land for the benefit of which improvements may be specified in a scheme which may be approved by the appropriate Minister under section one of the Hill Farming Act, 1946 (hereafter in this Act referred to as ‘the principal Act’) shall, instead of being restricted to hill farming land or other land suitable for use therewith for hill farming purposes, be extended so as to include any land falling within the definition of livestock rearing land set out in subsection (3) of this section and any land suitable for use with such land for livestock rearing purposes as defined by that subsection, and the class of work in respect of the cost of which grants may be made under that section shall be extended so as to include any work done in accordance with a scheme approved under that section as amended by this section; and the class of land subject to rights of common of pasture for the benefit of which improvements may be made under section twelve of the principal Act by the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries shall, instead of being restricted to hill farming land so subject, be extended so as to include any land so subject falling within the said definition of livestock rearing land.

(2) Accordingly—

(a ) in subsection (3) of section one of the principal Act, for the definitions of hill farming land and hill farming purposes there shall be substituted respectively the definitions of livestock rearing land and livestock rearing purposes set out in the next following subsection; and

(b ) for references in the principal Act (elsewhere than in the said subsection (3)) to hill farming land and hill farming purposes there shall be substituted respectively references to livestock rearing land and livestock rearing purposes, and for references in that Act, in paragraph (d ) of subsection (1) of section nine of the Agricultural Holdings Act, 1948, and in paragraph (d ) of subsection (1) of section eight of the Agricultural Holdings (Scotland) Act, 1949, to hill farming land improvement schemes there shall be substituted references to livestock rearing land improvement schemes.

(3) In this section—

(a ) the expression ‘livestock rearing land’ means land situated in an area consisting predominantly of mountains, hills or heath, being land which is, or by improvement could be made, suitable for use for the breeding, rearing and maintenance of sheep or cattle but not for the carrying on, to any material extent, of dairy farming, the production, to any material extent, of fat sheep or fat cattle or the production of crops in quantity materially greater than that necessary to feed the number of sheep or cattle capable of being maintained on the land;

(b ) the expression ‘livestock rearing purposes’ means the breeding, rearing and maintenance of sheep or cattle, and includes other activities carried on in connection therewith.

S-2 Extension of period for submission of schemes under s. 1 of the principal Act.

2 Extension of period for submission of schemes under s. 1 of the principal Act.

2. Ten years from the commencement of the principal Act shall be substituted for five years from the commencement thereof as the period within which schemes may be submitted under subsection (1) of section one of that Act for the approval of the appropriate Minister.

S-3 Increase of amounts available for improvement grants and extension of period for making orders for further increases.

3 Increase of amounts available for improvement grants and extension of period for making orders for further increases.

3. In subsection (4) of section two of the principal Act—

a ) twenty million pounds shall be substituted for four million pounds as the maximum amount that may be paid in the aggregate by way of improvement grants
b ) two million pounds shall be substituted for one million pounds as the amount by which the said maximum amount may be increased by virtue of an order made by the Ministers with the consent of the Treasury and approved by a resolution of the Commons House of Parliament; and
c ) ten years from the commencement of that Act shall be substituted for five years from the commencement thereof as the period within which an order providing for increasing the said maximum amount may be made as aforesaid
S-4 Special provisions as to improvement grants for provision of certain cattle-grids.

4 Special provisions as to improvement grants for provision of certain cattle-grids.

(1) Where—

(a ) a scheme approved under section one of the principal Act provides (either as originally approved or as varied under any of the provisions of that Act in that behalf) for the provision by the appropriate authority in pursuance of the Highways (Provision of Cattle-Grids) Act, 1950, of a cattle-grid; and

(b ) an agreement under section ten of the said Act of 1950 is entered into by the appropriate authority with a person for the making by him to that authority of a contribution towards all or any of the expenditure to be incurred by that authority in connection with the installation of the cattle-grid;

no payment shall be made to the appropriate authority by way of an improvement grant under the principal Act in respect of the cost of any work done by them for a purpose connected with the installation of the cattle-grid, notwithstanding the fact that they are specified in the scheme as the person responsible for doing the work required for that purpose or any item of that work, but an improvement grant under that Act in respect of the cost of any work done for that purpose by the appropriate authority may be made to the person with whom that authority made the agreement, so, however, that the amount of the grant shall, instead of being one half of the cost of that work so far as approved by the appropriate Minister as having been reasonably incurred, be one half of the amount payable by that person under the agreement.

(2) Where, by virtue of the foregoing subsection, an improvement grant in respect of the cost of work done for any purpose connected with the installation of a cattle-grid has been paid to a person, and the amount paid by him to the appropriate authority, or any part of that amount, becomes repayable, a sum equal to one half of that amount or that part thereof, as the case may be, shall become payable by that person to the Minister who made the grant and may be recovered by that Minister as a simple contract debt.

(3) In this section—

(a ) the expression ‘appropriate authority’ has the same meaning as in the Highways (Provision of Cattle-Grids) Act, 1950; and

(b ) the expression ‘cattle-grid’ means a grid designed or adapted to prevent the passage of sheep or cattle, and includes any fence or other works necessary for securing the efficient operation of the grid.

S-5 Amendments to First Schedule to the principal Act.

5 Amendments to First Schedule to the principal Act.

5. The First Schedule to the principal Act (in which are specified the improvements which may...

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