Section 14 Withholding and recovery of grant

(1)

If at any time after the appropriate Minister has approved an application it appears to that Minister that the applicant, with a view to obtaining payment of grant under this Scheme, has made any statement or furnished any information which is false or misleading in a material respect, the appropriate Minister may—

(a)

reduce or withhold any payment under this Scheme due to the applicant or his personal representatives or, in Scotland, his executors;

(b)

recover from him or them an amount equal to any payment made to him or them under this Scheme or such part thereof as the approprate Minister may specify;

(c)

recover from a related participant or his personal representatives or, in Scotland, his executors, an amount equal to any payment made to that related participant or those personal representatives or executors under this Scheme or such part thereof as the appropriate Minister may specify; and

(d)

terminate the participation in the Scheme of the applicant or his personal representatives or, in Scotland, his executors.

(2)

If, at any time after the approprate Minister has approved an application it appears to that Minister that—

(a)

the applicant or his personal representatives or, in Scotland, his executors, has without reasonable cause failed to carry out any undertaking given by him pursuant to paragraph 8, or to comply with any other requirement of this Scheme, or

(b)

on account of arrangements (whenever made) of which the appropriate Minister becomes aware he would—were the application made at that first mentioned time—make the decision referred to in paragraph 7(2) in relation to the application,

the appropriate Minister may take one or more of the actions referred to in sub-paragraph (3) below.

(3)

The actions referred to in sub-paragraph (2) above are, in relation to an application to which that sub-paragraph relates, to —

(a)

postpone, reduce or withhold any payment under this Scheme due to the applicant or his personal representatives, or in Scotland, his executors;

(b)

recover from him or them an amount equal to any payment made to him or them under this Scheme or such part thereof as the appropriate Minister may specify;

(c)

(d)

terminate the participation in the Scheme of the applicant or his personal representatives or, in Scotland, his executors.

(4)

For the purposes of sub-paragraphs (1)(c) and (3)(c) above, a related participant means, in relation to an applicant whose application is approved under paragraph 3(2), any previous occupier, who was, in relation to the land which the application concerns, an initial entrant or a successor.

(5)

For the purposes of sub-paragraph (2)(a) above, “reasonable cause” shall be taken to refer to such exceptional circumstances as the appropriate Minister considers justify the failure referred to therein.

(6)

Before postponing, reducing, withholding or recovering any payment or terminating participation in the Scheme under this paragraph the appropriate Minister shall—

(a)

give to any person to whom any payment of such grant would be made, or from whom any payment would be recoverable, or the participation of whom in the Scheme he proposes to terminate, a written notification of the reasons for the action proposed to be taken by the Minister;

(b)

afford that person or, in the case of a grazings committee, a representative of that committee, an opportunity of appearing before and being heard by a person appointed for the purpose by the appropriate Minister; and

(c)

consider the report by the person so appointed and supply a copy of the report to the person mentioned in paragraph (a) above.

(7)

The appropriate Minister shall not approve a further application from any person whose participation in the Scheme has been terminated under this paragraph, where the application is submitted within five years of the date of that termination.

(8)

Where the appropriate Minister is entitled under this paragraph to recover from any person any payment made under this Scheme, the appropriate Minister may in addition recover from that person interest on the amount of that payment, calculated at the rate of one percentage point above the sterling three months London Interbank Offered Rate, on a day to day basis, from the date when that payment was made to that person to the date of its recovery by the appropriate Minister.

(9)

In any case, where an amount falls to be paid to the appropriate Minister by virtue of (or by virtue of action taken under) this Scheme, the amount so falling to be paid shall be recoverable as a debt.