Commentary on Provisions Part 1 – Retained EU law Section 4 – Power to modify financial provision in CAP legislation
111.This section provides for the Scottish Ministers to be able, by regulations subject to the affirmative procedure, to modify any provision of the main CAP legislation relating to the setting or determining of ceilings on the amounts of any payments or expenditure for any purpose under the legislation, or to the reallocation or transfer of amounts or proportions of such ceilings between or among different purposes under the legislation. Subsection (2) lists some of the specific provisions that may be modified under this power.
112.Provision that might be made under this power will include reducing the sum available to be spent under a particular ceiling (also known as “capping”), or provision giving effect to flexibility between the CAP Pillars (also known as “Pillar to Pillar Transfer”). It might also include changing the ceiling on the total amount of a rural development programme that may be devoted to technical assistance, currently set at 4% by Article 51 of the Rural Development Regulation.
113.A modification of a “financial” provision may also be a simplification or improvement of the main CAP legislation (for which see section 2), but this power will be available when that is not the case which might for example be a consideration when capping a ceiling.