Agricultural Marketing Act 1931
Agricultural Marketing Act, 1931
(21 & 22 Geo. 5.) CHAPTER 42.
An Act to enable schemes to be made for regulating the marketing of agricultural products; to confer powers upon boards and other bodies to be constituted in connection with, or acting for purposes connected with, such schemes; to establish agricultural marketing funds for the purpose of making loans thereout to the boards aforesaid; to encourage agricultural co-operation, research and education; and to provide for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.
[31st July 1931]
B E 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:—
Agricultural Marketing Schemes.
1 Submission and approval of schemes.
(1) A scheme regulating the marketing of an agricultural product by the producers thereof may be submitted to the Minister in accordance with Part I of the First Schedule to this Act, and the Minister may, subject to the provisions of this section, approve the scheme.
(2) A scheme submitted and approved as aforesaid may be applicable to Great Britain or to any part thereof.
(3) Before approving a scheme, the Minister shall cause to be published, in the Gazette and in such other manner as he thinks best for informing persons affected, notice of the submission of the scheme, of the place where copies thereof may be obtained (on payment of such fee as may be prescribed by the notice) and inspected, and of the time (which shall not be less than six weeks after such publication in the Gazette) within which objections and representations with respect to the scheme may be made.
(4) Every objection must be sent to the Minister in writing and must state the grounds of objection and the specific modifications required.
(5) The Minister, after considering any scheme duly submitted to him and any objections and representations duly made with respect thereto and after holding such inquiries (if any) as he thinks fit, may make such modifications in the scheme as he thinks proper:
Provided that—
(a ) where an objection has been duly made to the scheme by any person affected thereby and has not been withdrawn, the Minister, unless he considers the objection to be frivolous, or unless he has modified the scheme as required by the objection, shall, before taking any further action under this section, direct a public inquiry to be held as hereinafter provided and consider the report of the person who held the inquiry; and
(b ) no scheme shall be modified so as to be applicable to any area to which it would not have been applicable without modification; and
(c ) before making any modifications, the Minister shall give notice of the proposed modifications to such persons (not being less than nine or more than twenty-one) as may be nominated for the purpose, at the time of the submission of the scheme, by the persons submitting the scheme, and unless, within four weeks after notice has been so given or such longer time as the Minister may allow, more than half the persons so nominated notify the Minister that they assent to the modifications, the Minister shall take no further action under this section.
(6) Any inquiry under this section shall be held in accordance with rules made by the Minister for the purpose by a competent and impartial person appointed by the Minister, and those rules may contain provisions as to the costs of the inquiry, and such expenses of any such inquiry as may be incurred by the Minister with the approval of the Treasury shall be defrayed out of moneys provided by Parliament.
(7) Any rules made by the Minister under the last foregoing subsection shall, as soon as may be after they are made, be laid before each House of Parliament, and if either House, within the next subsequent twenty-eight days on which that House has sat after any such rules are laid before it, resolves that the rules be annulled, the rules shall thenceforth be void, but without prejudice to anything previously done thereunder or to the making of new rules.
(8) If the Minister, after making such modifications (if any) as aforesaid, is satisfied that the scheme will conduce to the more efficient production and marketing of the regulated product, he may, after consultation with the Board of Trade, lay before each House of Parliament a draft of the scheme, and if each House resolves that the scheme shall be approved, the Minister shall make an order approving the scheme in terms of the draft, and the scheme shall (subject to the provisions of this Act) come into force on such date after the date of the passing of the last of such resolutions of approval as may be specified in the order, and the making of the order shall be conclusive evidence that the requirements of this Act have been complied with and that the order and the scheme approved thereby have been duly made and approved and are within the powers conferred by this Act.
(9) The Minister, on laying before either House of Parliament a draft of a scheme under the last foregoing subsection, shall at the same time—
(a ) in a case where the scheme is not a substitutional scheme, lay before that House a report as to the evidence by which he has been satisfied for the purpose of Part I of the First Schedule to this Act that the persons submitting the scheme were duly representative; or
(b ) in a case where the scheme is a substitutional scheme, lay before that House a report showing that the provisions of the proviso to Part I of that Schedule have been complied with.
(10) As soon as possible after making an order approving a scheme the Minister shall cause the order to be published in the Gazette, and in such other manner as he thinks best for informing persons affected.
(11) A scheme may be amended or revoked in accordance with the provisions of Part II of the First Schedule to this Act.
2 Constitution of boards to administer schemes.
(1) Every scheme shall provide for the registration of any producer who makes application for that purpose, and shall constitute a board to administer the scheme, which shall (subject to the provisions of the scheme as to the filling of casual vacancies) be composed of representatives of registered producers elected by them in such manner as may be provided by the scheme:
Provided that, during such period (not being longer than twelve months after the scheme comes into force) as may be specified in the scheme, the board shall, subject as aforesaid, be composed of persons named in the scheme and, except in the case of a substitutional scheme, two persons nominated by the Minister after consultation with the persons who submitted the scheme.
(2) The provisions of the Second Schedule to this Act shall apply with respect to the incorporation, registration and winding up of any such board.
3 Poll on question whether scheme to remain in force.
(1) Every scheme except a substitutional scheme shall require a poll of the registered producers to be taken, within such time as may be specified in the scheme, on the question whether the scheme shall remain in force.
(2) If the poll aforesaid shows that there have voted in favour of the scheme remaining in force—
(a ) not less than two-thirds of the total number of registered producers voting on the poll; and
(b ) registered producers who are capable of producing not less than two-thirds of the quantity of the regulated product which all the registered producers voting on the poll are capable of producing;
the provisions of the scheme, the operation of which is suspended (under the provisions hereafter contained in this Act) until the expiration of the suspensory period, shall come into force at the expiration of that period, but in any other case the scheme shall cease to have effect at the date on which the result of the poll is declared, and the provisions of paragraphs 7 and 8 of Part II of the First Schedule to this Act shall apply as if the scheme had been revoked:
Provided that, if it is proved to the satisfaction of the Minister at any time before the expiration of the suspensory period that the number of producers voting on the poll was less than half the total number of producers (excluding producers exempted, or entitled to exemption, from registration by or under the provisions of the scheme) he shall forthwith by order revoke the scheme.
(3) Every scheme shall provide for the manner in which polls are to be taken for the purposes of this Act, and in particular but without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing provision—
(a ) may apply with any necessary modifications any enactments (including the penal provisions thereof) relating to parliamentary or local government elections and to the prevention of corrupt and illegal practices thereat;
(b ) may prescribe the manner in which the quantity of the regulated product which any registered producer is capable of producing is to be determined for the purposes of the poll;
(c ) may prescribe the information relating to the regulated product, which is to be furnished by every registered producer before or at the time of voting, and the manner in which the information is to be furnished, and may require the rejection of the vote of any producer who fails to furnish the prescribed information in the prescribed manner, and may impose penalties for furnishing false information;
(d ) shall prescribe the manner in which the result of the poll is to be declared and published.
(4) In the case of a scheme regulating the marketing of two or more separate products, this section shall apply subject to the following modifications, that is to say:—
(a )...
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