# The Arable Area Payments Regulations 1996, Regulation 10: Transfer of the obligation to set aside to another farmer


(1) Where a farmer transfers his set-aside requirement either in whole or in part to another farmer purportedly in compliance with the plan submitted by the United Kingdom to the Commission of the European Communities pursuant to the second indent of Article 7(7) of Council Regulation 1765/92 as read with Article 10 of Commission Regulation 762/94, the Minister shall accept that transfer as carried out in accordance with the plan where the transferee provides the evidence specified in the following paragraphs of this regulation to the Minister’s satisfaction.
(2) For the purposes of this regulation, the “transferor” means the farmer who so transfers his set-aside requirement and the “transferee” means the other farmer to whom that requirement is transferred as aforesaid.
(3) The transferee shall provide evidence that all the land which is set aside by him to satisfy the set-aside requirement of the transferor falls within–
(a) a location within the coverage of the restriction as to distance referred to in the second indent of Article 7(7) of Council Regulation 1765/92, as read with Article 10(9) of Commission Regulation 762/94;
(b) either–
(i) a nitrate sensitive area as designated (in England and Wales) by the Nitrate Sensitive Areas (Designation) Order 1990 or (in Scotland) under section 31B of the Control of Pollution Act 1974 as it applies in Scotland, or
(ii) a nitrate sensitive area as defined in the Nitrate Sensitive Area Regulations 1994;
(c) a site of archaeological or historical importance; or
(d) (in Scotland) a water features protection area,
or comprises a continuous area of land immediately adjoining a site of special scientific interest or a site of archaeological or historical importance, with (in the former case) at least 25% of the length of the boundary of that continuous area of land being continguous with the boundary of that site of special scientific interest.
(4) For the purposes of paragraph (3)(c) above, land falls within a site of archaeological or historical importance if it comprises all or part of–
(a) an Ancient Monument which is included in the schedule compiled by the Secretary of State pursuant to section 1(1) of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979;
(b) an area designated as an area of archaeological importance by the Secretary of State under section 33 of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979;
(c) an area in England and Wales in respect of which the transferee supplies evidence (to the extent that it is not already available to the Minister) showing–
(i) that the responsible officer of a local authority in whose area it lies considers management of it as set-aside land to be of potential archaeological value, and
(ii) that it comprises all or part of a site listed in a register of sites of archaeological interest maintained by that local authority; or
(d) an area in Scotland in respect of which the transferee supplies evidence (to the extent that it is not already available to the Minister) showing that it is listed in a register of sites of archaeological interest maintained by a public authority.
(5) For the purposes of paragraph (3)(d) above, a water features protection area is an area in Scotland which is adjacent to a water feature, and in respect of which the transferee provides evidence (to the extent that it is not already available to the Minister) showing that the management of that area as set-aside land would have a beneficial effect on the ecological status of that water feature; and in this paragraph “water feature” means any river, loch, wetland or other similar feature.
(6) For the purposes of paragraph (3) above, a site of special scientific interest is an area of special scientific interest as notified pursuant to section 28(1) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 or an area to which section 29(3) of that Act applies.
(7) Where a transferee shows to the satisfaction of the Minister that he has set land aside as environmental transferred set-aside land in a given scheme year, he shall provide (in addition to any evidence he is required to provide by virtue of the previous provisions of this regulation) evidence that–
(a) the land set aside by him as environmental transferred set-aside land in the preceding scheme year (which was not also set aside by him as environmental transferred set-aside land in the pre-preceding scheme year) was also set aside by him in the given scheme year;
(b) all land set aside by him as environmental transferred set-aside land in the pre-preceding scheme year (which was not also set aside by him as environmental transferred set-aside land in the pre-pre-preceding scheme year) was also set aside by him in the preceding scheme year;
(c) all land set aside by him as environmental transferred set-aside land in the pre-pre-preceding scheme year (which was not also set aside by him as environmental transferred set-aside land in the scheme year immediately preceding the pre-pre-preceding scheme year) was also set aside by him in the pre-preceding scheme year; and
(d) he is not using the land set-aside as environmental transferred set-aside land as land set aside for non-food purposes.
(8) For the purposes of paragraph (7) above–
(a) “the preceding scheme year” means the scheme year immediately preceding the given scheme year referred to in that paragraph;
(b) “the pre-preceding scheme year” means the scheme year immediately preceding the preceding scheme year; and
(c) “the pre-pre-preceding scheme year” means the scheme year immediately preceding the pre-preceding scheme year.

---
Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1996/3142/regulation/10 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/arable-area-payments-regulations-1996/regulation-10
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.