# The Horticulture Pilot Scheme Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2025, Regulation 2: Interpretation

Extent: N.I.

(1) In these Regulations—
“applicant” means an eligible farm business which has applied to a scheme;
“approved agent” means an agent appointed by the Department to act on behalf of the applicant;
“authorised person” means any person authorised by the Department to act under section 40(1) of the Agriculture Act (Northern Ireland) 1949 in matters relating to these Regulations;
“CAFRE” means the Department’s College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise;
“commercial horticulture business” means an eligible farm business linked to a unique taxpayer reference (UTR) number issued by HMRC which produces and sells one or more commercial horticulture products listed in Schedule 1;
“the Department” means the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs;
“eligible farm business” means a farm business which has applied for the scheme and meets the eligibility criteria in either regulation 4, 5 or 6;
“force majeure or exceptional circumstances” has the same meaning as in Article 2(2) of Regulation (EU) No.1306/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the financing, management and monitoring of the common agricultural policy;
“growers training and support pilot scheme” means the scheme set up by the Department to provide to successful grower scheme applicants technical and non-technical training provided by CAFRE and support and funding to facilitate their 4-year grower Business Development Plans;
“hosting event” means an event given prior approval of the Department hosted by an eligible farm business for the purposes of facilitating learning;
“hosting payment” means a payment under regulation 4(3) to an eligible farm business for the provision of facilities and support to facilitate learning;
“scheme” means the Horticulture Pilot Scheme which comprises grant support under—
(a)the sustainable sector growth group pilot scheme;
(b)the innovation driver and support pilot scheme; or
(c)the growers training and support pilot scheme;
“new group of businesses” means a group of up to twelve eligible farm businesses which has never worked together which have formed into a sustainable sector growth group;
“protected crop” means a crop grown under protection in a structure within which the environment can be controlled;
“scheme year” means a financial year; and
“sustainable sector growth group” means a group of eligible farm businesses joining together under these Regulations to form a group to promote their sustainable farm business growth.
(2) The Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954 shall apply to these Regulations as it applies to an act of the Assembly.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisr/2025/103/regulation/2 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/horticulture-pilot-scheme-regulations-northern-ireland-2025/regulation-2
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.