# The Farm Woodland Scheme 1988, Section 14: Withholding and recovery of grant


(1) If at any time after the appropriate Minister has approved the entry of any person into this Scheme it appears to that Minister that that person with a view to obtaining the 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 of grant due under the Scheme to the entrant or his personal representatives; and
(b) recover from him or them an amount equal to any payments made under the Scheme or such part thereof as the appropriate Minister may specify; and
(c) terminate the participation in the Scheme of the entrant or his personal representatives.
(2) If at any time after the appropriate Minister has approved the entry of any person into this Scheme it appears to that Minister that that person or his personal representatives have 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 the appropriate Minister may—
(a) postpone, reduce or withhold any payment of grant under this Scheme to the entrant or his personal representatives; or
(b) recover from him or them an amount equal to any payments made under the Scheme or such part thereof as the appropriate Minister may specify; and
(c) terminate the participation in the Scheme of the entrant or his personal representatives.
(3) Before postponing, reducing, withholding or recovering any grant 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 payable or from whom any such amount would be recoverable or whose participation in the Scheme is proposed to be terminated a written notification of the reasons for the action proposed to be taken by that Minister, and
(b) afford that person 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 a person so appointed and supply a copy of the report to the person mentioned in sub-paragraph (a) above.
(4) The appropriate Minister shall not approve a further application to enter this Scheme made by a person whose participation in the Scheme has been terminated under this paragraph within three years of the date of that termination.
(5) For the purposes of sub-paragraph (2) “reasonable cause” shall be taken to refer to ill-health or death of the entrant concerned or his personal representatives, severe weather conditions, shortage of suitable tree plants, or compulsory purchase of land in respect of which the applicant’s entry to the Scheme was approved, or such other exceptional circumstances as the appropriate Minister considers justify failure to carry out any undertaking or comply with any requirement under this Scheme.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1988/1291/section/14 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/farm-woodland-scheme-1988/section-14
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.