Payment to Biodiversity Stewardship Payments Fund on first transfer of biodiversity credit or on retirement without first transfer
6.21 Payment to Biodiversity Stewardship Payments Fund on first transfer of biodiversity credit or on retirement without first transfer
An amount, calculated as provided by this Act, is to be paid into the Biodiversity Stewardship Payments Fund before a first transfer of a biodiversity credit is registered.
If an application for registration of a first transfer is made in respect of all the biodiversity credits created in respect of a biodiversity stewardship site, the amount payable into the Fund before that transfer is registered is the total Fund deposit for the site.
If an application for registration of a first transfer is made in respect of a number of biodiversity credits that is less than the number of biodiversity credits created in respect of the biodiversity stewardship site, the amount payable into the Fund before that transfer is registered is (subject to this section) the relevant proportion of the total Fund deposit for the biodiversity stewardship site, or the proceeds of sale of the biodiversity credits, whichever amount is the greater.
If the Environment Agency Head considers an amount that would be payable under subsection (3) is not appropriate—
the Environment Agency Head may determine another amount as being the amount payable, and
the amount determined under paragraph (a) is the amount payable under subsection (3).
Despite anything to the contrary in this Part, the payment of an amount into the Fund in respect of a first transfer of biodiversity credits is not to result in the total amount paid into the Fund in respect of all the biodiversity credits created in respect of the biodiversity stewardship site exceeding the total Fund deposit for the site.
If a biodiversity credit is proposed to be retired without having been transferred by the owner of the biodiversity stewardship site, the amount that would have been payable under this section if the biodiversity credit had instead been transferred is to be paid into the Fund before the credit is retired.
The regulations may amend this section to vary the operation of this section (including to vary the calculation of the amount to be paid into the Fund under this section or to provide for the deferral of the payment of the amount until a subsequent transfer of the biodiversity credit).
In this section—
proceeds of sale of a biodiversity credit means the consideration (if any) for the transfer of the biodiversity credit.
relevant proportion of the total Fund deposit for a site means the proportion that the number of biodiversity credits to be transferred bears to the number of biodiversity credits created in respect of the site.
total Fund deposit for a site means an amount determined (subject to the regulations) by the Environment Agency Head as the present value of the total of all scheduled management payments in respect of the site (under the biodiversity stewardship agreement) during the life of the agreement. The present value is to be determined by applying the discount rate determined and published by the Environment Agency Head from time to time.
This provision refers to the regulations (the regulations
). Made under this Act:
This Act’s bill:Explanatory memorandumSecond reading speech
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