Agriculture Act 1920
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1920 c. 76 |
| Year | 1920 |
Agriculture Act, 1920
(10 & 11 Geo. 5.) CHAPTER 76.
An Act to amend the Corn Production Act, 1917, and the Enactments relating to Agricultural Holdings.
[23rd December 1920]
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:
Part I.
Amendment of the Corn Production Act, 1917.
1 Continuance of Corn Production Act, 1917.
(1) Subject as hereinafter provided, the provisions of the Act of 1917 shall continue in force until Parliament otherwise determines:
Provided that it shall be lawful for His Majesty, on an Address presented to him by both Houses of Parliament praying that the Act of 1917 shall cease to be in force, by Order in Council to declare that that Act shall cease to be in force on the expiration of the fourth year subsequent to the year in which the Order is made.
(2) In the event of an Order in Council being made under this section, the expiration of the provisions of the Act of 1917 by virtue of the Order shall not affect the right to any payments under Part I. of that Act in respect of the wheat and oats of the year on the termination of which those provisions expire or of any previous year, or any rights, privileges, obligations or liabilities acquired, accrued, or incurred under those provisions before the date on which those provisions expire, or any penalty, forfeiture, or punishment incurred in respect of any offence committed under those provisions before that date, or in respect of any statement or representation made in connection with a claim under those provisions, whether the statement, representation, or claim was made before or after that date.
2 Amendment as to minimum price and average price.
(1) The minimum prices for the wheat and oats of the year nineteen hundred and twenty-one and any subsequent year shall be such prices for a statutory quarter as correspond to the following minimum prices for the wheat and oats respectively of the year nineteen hundred and nineteen (hereinafter referred to as ‘the standard year’):—
| Wheat | 68 s. per customary quarter of 504 pounds. |
| Oats | 46 s. ,, ,, 336 ,, |
and the corresponding minimum prices shall be fixed in respect of each year in accordance with the following provisions:—
(a ) The Commissioners to be appointed under this Part of this Act shall, as soon as possible after the completion of the harvest in the year nineteen hundred and twenty-one and each subsequent year, ascertain, after consideration of any information furnished by the Minister, the Board of Agriculture for Scotland, and the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland, the percentage by which the cost of production of the wheat and oats respectively of that year is greater or less than the cost of production of the wheat and oats respectively of the standard year:
(b ) In ascertaining the variation in the cost of production no account shall be taken of any variation of rent, except any variation that is attributable to a variation in the cost of maintenance:
(c ) The corresponding minimum prices for the wheat and oats respectively of any year shall be such sums as are certified by the Commissioners to bear to the minimum prices for the wheat and oats respectively of the standard year the same proportion as the cost of production of the wheat and oats respectively of the year for which the prices are to be fixed bears to the cost of production of the wheat and oats respectively of the standard year.
(2) Any fraction of a penny in the average price or minimum price per statutory quarter shall be disregarded.
(3) The foregoing provisions of this section shall have effect in substitution for the provisions of subsection (1) of section two of the Act of 1917.
(4) The expression ‘statutory quarter’ shall be substituted for the expression ‘quarter’ wherever that expression occurs in the Act of 1917.
3 Appointment remuneration, and powers of Commissioners.
(1) For the purposes of this Part of this Act, there shall be three Commissioners, one of whom shall be appointed by the Minister, and the Board of Agriculture for Scotland jointly, one by the Treasury and one by the Board of Trade.
(2) There shall be paid to the Commissioners such remuneration as the Treasury may determine, and any such remuneration and the expenses of the Commissioners, up to an amount sanctioned by the Treasury, shall be defrayed out of moneys provided by Parliament.
(3) The Commissioners may, subject to any directions given by the Treasury, pay to any person requested by them to furnish particulars with respect to the subject-matter of their inquiry or to attend before them such reasonable expenses as such person shall incur in respect thereof.
(4) The Commissioners shall not, except with the consent of the person concerned, include in any report or publication made or authorised by them any information obtained by them in the course of an inquiry made by them under this section as to the business carried on by any person which is not available otherwise than through evidence given to them during the inquiry, nor shall any Commissioner or any person concerned in the inquiry, except with such consent as aforesaid, disclose any such information.
4 Power to enforce proper cultivation.
(1) The Minister, if in any case he is of opinion after consultation with the agricultural committee (if any) for the area in which the land is situate—
(a ) that any arable or grass land not being a park, garden, or pleasure ground or land adjoining a mansion house or garden attached thereto and required for their protection or amenity or woodland or land cultivated for osiers, is not being cultivated according to the rules of good husbandry; or
(b ) that the production of food on any such land as aforesaid can, in the national interest and without injuriously affecting the persons interested in the land or altering the general character of the holding, be maintained or increased by the occupier by means of an improvement in the existing method of cultivation; or
(c ) that the occupier of such land as aforesaid has unreasonably neglected to execute thereon the necessary works of maintenance being, in the case of land occupied by a tenant, works which he is liable to execute under the conditions of his tenancy or rendered necessary by his act or default; or
(d ) that the owner of such land as aforesaid in the occupation of a tenant has unreasonably neglected to execute thereon the necessary works of maintenance, not being works to which the preceding paragraph applies;
may serve notice, in the case of neglect to execute the necessary works of maintenance, on the tenant or owner, as the case may be, requiring him to execute the necessary works specified in the notice within such time as may be so specified, and in any other case on the occupier of the land requiring him to cultivate the land in accordance with such directions as the Minister may give for securing that the cultivation shall be in accordance with the rules of good husbandry or for securing the necessary improvement in the existing method of cultivation, so however as not to interfere with the discretion of the occupier as to the crops to be grown, and the Minister may, in the same or any subsequent notice so served, provide for securing to the landlord such payments or other benefits (if any) as the Minister thinks just on account of any profit or benefit derived or expected to be derived by the tenant by reason of the execution by the owner of any works of maintenance, and any such provision of the notice shall have effect as if it was contained in the contract of tenancy:
Provided that, if any person on whom any notice is served under this section is aggrieved by the notice, he may, within the prescribed time, require the question whether the land has been cultivated according to the rules of good husbandry, or whether the production of food on the land can in the national interest be maintained or increased by the occupier by means of the required improvement in the existing method of cultivation, or whether such improvement will injuriously affect the persons interested in the land, or alter the general character of the holding, or whether the works required to be executed are necessary works of maintenance, or whether the time specified in the notice for the execution of such works is reasonable, to be referred to arbitration in accordance with Part IV. of the Act of 1917, and, where any question is so referred to arbitration, no action shall be taken for enforcing the directions given by the Minister until the determination of the reference or except in accordance with the terms of the award, and, where the person on whom any notice is served is a tenant, the landlord shall have the same right as the tenant of requiring any question to be referred to arbitration.
(2) Where any notice is served on a tenant, a copy of the notice shall, at the same time, be served on the landlord.
(3) No action shall be taken by the Minister or by the agricultural committee (if any) under subsection (1) of this section unless a full report in writing signed on behalf of the Minister or of the committee, setting out in detail the matters complained of and the improvements or works required, has been served upon the owner and occupier.
(4) Where a notice has been served under this section on the owner or occupier of any land requiring him within a time specified in the notice to execute some work and that person unreasonably fails to comply with the requirements of the notice, he shall be...
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