Agriculture Act 1957
Agriculture Act , 1957
(5 & 6 Eliz. 2) CHAPTER 57
An Act to make further provision for guaranteed prices and assured markets for producers of agricultural produce in the United Kingdom; to authorise the payment of grants in respect of long-term improvements of agricultural land within the United Kingdom and in respect of the costs of certain transactions concerning such land; to make fresh provision for the development of the pig industry in Great Britain (including the production, processing, manufacture and distribution of pig products); to authorise payments into the Exchequer of Northern Ireland on account of expenses incurred for the benefit of producers of agricultural produce in Northern Ireland; and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.
Be it enacted by the Queen'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:LDASH;
Part I
Guaranteed Prices and Assured Markets
1 Power to provide for guaranteed prices, etc.
(1) The Minister may by order make such provision as appears to him to be expedient for providing guaranteed prices or assured markets for producers of produce described in the First Schedule to this Act.
(2) Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing provision, an order under this section in respect of any produce may in particular provide—
(a ) for the payment by the Minister to the Board administering a marketing scheme for the produce of sums calculated by reference to the difference between the value at guaranteed prices determined by the Minister in pursuance of the order of the produce sold by the Board and the receipts of the Board ascertained or estimated for the purposes of the order from the sale of the produce;
(b ) for the payment by the Minister to producers of the produce, or to such other persons as may be prescribed by the order, of sums calculated by reference to the difference between guaranteed rices determined by the Minister in pursuance of the order and prices ascertained or estimated for the purposes the order as the prices received or to be received by producers on the sale of the produce;
(c ) for the purchase by or on behalf of the Minister or by the Board administering a marketing scheme for the produce, at guaranteed prices determined by the Minister in pursuance of the order, of any of the produce tendered by the producers, and, in the case of purchase by any such Board, for the payment by the Minister of the whole or part of any trading losses incurred or treated as incurred by the Board on the purchase and disposal of the produce.
(3) Subject to the provisions of this section, any guaranteed price to be determined by the Minister in pursuance of an order under this section shall be determined from time to time in respect of such guarantee periods (being periods of or of approximately twelve months) as may be prescribed by the order, and shall be so determined in the light of the conclusions of the Ministers from the annual review last held before the commencement of the period concerned.
(4) Subject to the following provisions of this part of this Act, any guaranteed price determined by the Minister for a guarantee period in pursuance of an order under this section may be varied by a subsequent determination of the Minister.
(5) An order under this section in respect of any produce described in the First Schedule to this Act may be made so as to apply only to particular descriptions or quantities of that produce, or may make different provision (including in particular provision for the determination of different guaranteed prices) in respect of different description or quantities of that produce; and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing provision produce may be distinguished for the purposes of any such order by reference—
(a ) to the area in which, or the season of the year in which, it is produced, sold or despatched or delivered on sale;
(b ) to the purpose for which it is sold or used;
(c ) to the methods by which it is marketed, including the places at which it is delivered on sale.
(6) Where the dates of the guarantee periods prescribed by an order under this section are varied by a subsequent order, that subsequent order may direct that the duration of the first guarantee period under the order as varied, or of the last previous guarantee period, shall be shortened or extended accordingly.
2 Provision for stability of particular guarantees.
(1) The guaranteed price determined for a guarantee period in pursuance of an order under section one of this Act in respect of any produce shall not be less than ninety-six per cent. (calculated to the nearest figure or fraction which the Minister considers appropriate to that produce) of the corresponding price determined for the last previous guarantee period in pursuance of that order or of any previous order under the said section one relating to the same produce.
(2) Without prejudice to subsection (1) of this section, the guaranteed price determined for a guarantee period beginning in the year nineteen hundred and fifty-nine or any subsequent year in pursuance of an order under the said section one in respect of any produce described in Part II of the First Schedule to this Act shall not be less than ninety-one per cent. (calculated as aforesaid) of the corresponding price determined for the first of the three previous guarantee periods in pursuance of that order or of any previous order under the said section one relating to the same produce.
(3) In comparing for the purposes of this section the guaranteed prices determined in respect of any produce for any two guarantee periods there shall be made such adjustment, if any, as the Ministers, after consultation with producers, may determine to be appropriate in consequence of changes in the arrangements in force under section one of this Act in respect of those periods respectively.
(4) In relation to an order which provides for the determination of different guaranteed prices in respect of different descriptions or quantities of the produce to which the order applies, any reference in this section to the guaranteed price determined in pursuance of the order shall be construed as a reference—
(a ) where those different prices are derived from the conversion of a single guaranteed price determined in pursuance of the order, to that single guaranteed price;
(b ) in any other case, to the weighted average (calculated upon such principles as may be determined by the Ministers after consultation with producers) of those different prices:
Provided that in relation to an order under the said section one which applies primarily but not exclusively to produce within a standard quantity prescribed by or under the order, the Ministers may direct that this section shall have effect as if that order did not apply to any produce in excess of that quantity.
(5) Any reference in this section to the guaranteed price determined for a guarantee period shall be construed as a reference to the price so determined irrespective of any variation effected in pursuance of subsection (4) of section one of this Act.
(6) Without prejudice to the foregoing provisions of this section, the power of the Minister to vary a determination made in pursuance of an order under section one of this Act in respect of any produce specified in the First Schedule to this Act, or to vary during a guarantee period an order made under that section in respect of any such produce, shall not be exercised in a manner which, in his opinion, would reduce the amounts payable to the producers of that produce unless—
(a ) the reduction is made in pursuance of the conclusions of the Ministers from the annual review last held before the commencement of that period; or
(b ) the Ministers are satisfied, in consequence of a special review, that the reduction is expedient in the public interest.
3 Provision for stability of overall guarantee.
(1) Without prejudice to the provisions of section two of this Act, any guaranteed prices or factors relevant to the operation of guaranteed prices determined in pursuance of orders under section one of this Act for guarantee periods beginning in any year shall be such as to secure that the aggregate value of all those prices together with the aggregate value of all relevant production grants payable in respect of annual grant periods beginning in that year is not less than the amount produced—
(a ) by taking ninety-seven and a half per cent. of the sum of the aggregate values of the corresponding prices determined and production grants paid or payable in respect of guarantee periods and grant periods beginning in the last previous year; and
(b ) by adding to or deducting from the figure ascertained under paragraph (a ) an amount equal to any net increase or net reduction (as the case may be) in the aggregate annual relevant costs of production of the produce to which the guaranteed prices apply which appears to the Ministers to have taken place since the determination of the corresponding prices referred to in that paragraph.
(2) For...
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