Rural Development Grants (Agriculture and Forestry) Regulations 2000 (S.I. 2907 of 2000).

These Regulations, which extend to England only, supplement the Community legislation listed in the Schedule to the Regulations. The Community legislation inter alia provides for assistance for operations which promote rural development by facilitating the development and structural adjustment of certain rural areas. The Regulations operate enable financial assistance to be paid by the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in respect of operations which he has approved (reg. 3). Such operations may be approved if they are eligible for assistance under the Community legislation and fall within a priority set by the Commission of the European Communities (reg. 5). The Regulations provide for the making of claims for, and the payment of, financial assistance following approval (regs. 6 and 7) and also impose obligations concerning the provision of information (reg. 8) and record-keeping (reg. 10) on those in receipt of financial assistance. In addition, they introduce a system of penalties to be imposed in the event of a breach of obligations by granting the Minister various powers to take action, up to and including termination of the approval in the event of breaches of the conditions of an approval and in a number of other cases (regs. 11 to 13).