Paragraph 10

A person whose application for a licence has been refused (except on any of the grounds mentioned in paragraph 3( d) or whose licence has been revoked or refused to be renewed (except on any of the grounds mentioned in paragraph 7( c) or ( d)) and who questions the existence or sufficiency of the grounds of the refusal or revocation may demand a reference thereupon in accordance with the succeeding provisions of this Schedule.

The Minister of Agriculture shall from time to time prepare a panel of not less than three persons each of whom shall be a practising barrister-at-law or a practising [F1solicitor of the Supreme Court of Judicature in Northern Ireland ] , in either case of not less than seven years standing.

Where a person, not later than the expiration of fourteen days from the date of the service on him of notice of the refusal or revocation, serves on the Ministry notice in writing of his intention to demand a reference under this paragraph, the Ministry shall send to him a copy of the panel mentioned in sub-paragraph (2) which is for the time being in force, and that person may select from the panel the name of a member thereof and may, not later than twenty-eight days from the date on which the copy of the panel was so sent to him, serve on the Ministry a demand for a reference, naming the member selected and stating the matters which he questions; and on the receipt by the Ministry of a demand so served those matters, to the extent that they are within the application of sub-paragraph (1), shall stand referred to the member of the panel so named.

F2Part I of the Arbitration Act 1996 shall not apply in relation to any reference under this paragraph.

The Ministry may pay to a person acting as referee on a reference under this Schedule fees and travelling and other allowances in respect of his services in accordance with such scales and subject to such conditions as the Ministry may determine with the approval of the Ministry of Finances.