Agriculture (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1954
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1954 c. 39 |
Agriculture (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act , 1954
(2 & 3 Eliz. 2) CHAPTER 39
An Act to continue the power to make grants or contributions in respect of field drainage, liming and other matters; to amend Part IV of the Agriculture Act, 1947, with respect to the holdings to be treated as smallholdings, and to the contributions to losses of smallholdings authorities; to alter the manner of appointing nominated members of Agricultural Land Tribunals, and enable those Tribunals to award costs and to refer questions of law to the High Court; to amend the Agricultural Holdings Act, 1948, with respect to the operation of certain notices to quit; to make further provision with respect to research and education in sugar beet growing, to the collection of waste for use as animal feeding stuffs, to preventing the spread of pests and diseases by imported bees and to the application of the Diseases of Animals Act, 1950, to air transport; to amend the Seeds Act, 1920, with respect to the consequences of contraventions of that Act, and to the delivery and effect of particulars given thereunder; to amend the law as to agricultural wages of holiday workers in Scotland; and to extend the Corn Returns Act, 1882, to Scotland.
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:—
1 Continuation of grants for drainage and water supply.
1. Section ninety-six of the Agriculture Act, 1947, shall cease to ave effect in so far as it limits the period during which application must be made for the approval of a scheme under section fifteen of the Agriculture (Miscellaneous War Provisions) Act, 1940 (under which grants may be made by the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries towards the cost of approved schemes for field drainage or the improvement of ditches or for the supply of water to agricultural land).
2 Continuation of contributions for liming.
(1) The period during which any cost must have been incurred in order that contributions may be payable in respect of it under section one of the Agriculture Act, 1937 (which, as amended by section ninety-seven of the Agriculture Act, 1947, provides for contributions out of moneys provided by Parliament to be made in accordance with a scheme known as the Agricultural Lime Scheme towards the cost of liming agricultural land),—
(a ) is hereby extended until the end of July, nineteen hundred and fifty-nine; and
(b ) may from time to time be extended by a further five years by order made with the approval of the Treasury by the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries and the two Secretaries of State respectively concerned with agriculture in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
(2) The power to make orders under this section shall be exercisable by statutory instrument, of which a draft shall be laid before Parliament, and no such order shall be made unless the draft has been approved by resolution of each House of Parliament.
3 Amendments as to smallholdings in England and Wales.
(1) The expression ‘smallholding’ in Part IV of the Agriculture Act, 1947 (which relates to the provision of smallholdings in England and Wales by local authorities and the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries), shall cease to include holdings of which the area exceeds fifty acres; but (if it is used or intended to be used for agriculture within the meaning of the said Act) any holding which before the commencement of this Act was provided as a smallholding for the purposes of the Smallholdings and Allotments Acts, 1908 to 1931, or the said Part IV, whether or not it was or continues to be a smallholding as defined for those purposes, and any holding provided by virtue of the next following subsection, shall be treated as a smallholding for the purposes of the said Part IV.
(2) A holding of any area exceeding fifty acres may be provided as a smallholding under Part IV of the Agriculture Act, 1947, if, in the case of a holding provided by a smallholdings authority, the authority and the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries are satisfied that in the circumstances of the case a holding of a smaller area would either—
(a ) not provide a full time occupation and a reasonable livelihood for the occupier; or
(b ) not be in the interests of good estate management;
or if, in the case of a holding provided by the Minister under section fifty-six of the Act, he is satisfied as aforesaid; and, where the Minister gives a smallholdings authority directions under subsection (4) of section fifty of the Act requiring the authority to alter the size or lay-out of any existing smallholdings provided by the authority, the directions may provide for a holding of any area exceeding fifty acres if the Minister is satisfied as aforesaid.
(3) In determining the contribution which, under section fifty-eight of the Agriculture Act, 1947, the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries may make for any year to a smallholdings authority in respect of a loss incurred by the authority in carrying out proposals formulated by them, the authority's expenditure referred to in subsection (3) of that section, in so far as it consists of the payment of interest or sinking fund charges on borrowed moneys, shall be calculated by reference to such rate of interest as may be prescribed by regulations under subsection (7) of the section, instead of by reference to the rate allowed for in the estimates approved by the Minister in relation to the proposals.
(4) There shall be paid out of moneys provided by Parliament any increase attributable to this section in the expenses of the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries under Part IV of the Agriculture Act, 1947, and there shall be paid into the Exchequer any increase attributable to subsection (1) or (2) of this section in the sums received by or on behalf of the Minister under the said Part IV.
4 Appointment of nominated members of Agricultural Land Tribunal.
(1) There shall be substituted for paragraph 15 of the Ninth Schedule to the Agriculture Act, 1947 (which provides for the appointment of the nominated members of an Agricultural Land Tribunal by the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries), the paragraph set out in the First Schedule to this Act:
Provided that this section shall not have effect in relation to any reference to an Agricultural Land Tribunal for which the nominated members of the Tribunal have, before this section comes into force, been appointed in accordance with the said Ninth Schedule as originally enacted.
(2) This section shall come into force on such date as the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries may appoint by order made by statutory instrument.
5 Power of Agricultural Land Tribunal to award costs.
(1) An Agricultural Land Tribunal, where it appears to them that any person concerned in a reference to them (including any Minister of the Crown or Government department so concerned) has acted frivolously, vexatiously or oppressively in applying for or in connection with the reference, may order that person to pay to any other person either a specified sum in respect of the costs incurred by him at or with a view to the hearing or the taxed amount of those costs; and an order may be made under this subsection whether or not the reference proceeds to a hearing.
(2) Any costs required by an order under this section to be taxed may be taxed in the county court according to such of the scales prescribed by county court rules for proceedings in the county court as may be directed by the order or, if the order gives no direction, by the county court.
(3) Any sum payable by virtue of an order of an Agricultural Land Tribunal under this section shall, if the county court so orders, be recoverable by execution issued from the county court or otherwise as if payable under an order of that court; and, subject to county court rules, an application for an order of the county court under this subsection may be made ex parte.
(4) The powers of the county court under this section may be exercised by the registrar.
6 Power of Agricultural Land Tribunal to refer questions of law to High Court.
(1) Any question of law arising in the course of proceedings before an Agricultural Land Tribunal may, at the request of any party to the proceedings, be referred by the Tribunal to the High Court for decision, whether before or after the Tribunal have given their decision in the proceedings.
(2) Subject to the following provisions of this section, if an Agricultural Land Tribunal, after giving their decision in any proceedings, refuse any such request to refer a question to the High Court under this section, any person aggrieved by the refusal may apply to the High Court for an order directing them to do...
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