§ Lord Stanley of Alderleyasked Her Majesty's Government:
Why it is necessary to have the integrated administration and control system documents signed by all partners, whereas all other claim forms do not insist on such a procedure, and whether failure to do so will result in invalidating the form.
Earl HoweThe IACS booklet explains that, where the applicant is a partnership, one of the partners may apply on the partnership's behalf. Under the EC regulation, however, if a partnership submits an application containing a false declaration made intentionally or as a result of serious negligence, that partnership will be excluded from receiving aid in the following year. The exclusion applies to all schemes covered by IACS on an equivalent area of land to that in the application containing the false declaration. It is therefore particularly important that the department avoids putting itself in the position of accepting an application form, and paying aid to one partner, when the other partner(s) is not in agreement. The partner applying therefore needs to obtain written authorisation from the other partner(s) that he/she is authorised to make the area aid application. The absence of authorisation from the other partner(s) would not, of itself, invalidate the claim.