PART 5DISCHARGE OF OBLIGATION

Re-cycling of buy-out payments

22.—(1) For the purposes of section 128(7) of the 2004 Act, the “transport fuel suppliers of a specified description” are any transport fuel supplier—

(a)who is an obligated supplier, or

(b)for whom an account is maintained by the Administrator pursuant to article 7(3)(a),

and who held one or more RTF certificates in an RTF account at the end of the obligation period in respect of which the sums referred to in section 128(7) were received by the Administrator.

(2) Subject to paragraph (5), the system of allocation of the sums referred to in section 128(6) is as follows—

(a)each transport fuel supplier referred to in paragraph (1) must notify the Administrator of the number of RTF certificates held in the supplier’s RTF account which the supplier surrenders to the Administrator in relation to the obligation period in question;

(b)those notifications must be given to the Administrator by the 5th November (or the next working day after 5th November, if 5th November is not a working day) immediately following the obligation period in question;

(c)where a supplier fails to notify the Administrator by that date of the number of RTF certificates to be surrendered, the Administrator must deem the number to be nil;

(d)the Administrator must calculate the total sums received by the Administrator pursuant to article 21(6) and (9) by the 5th December (or the next working day after 5th December, if 5th December is not a working day) (“the buy-out fund”);

(e)the Administrator may also include in the buy-out fund any sum received by the Administrator pursuant to article 21(6) and (9) after the 5th December (or after the next working day after 5th December, if 5th December is not a working day) (“late sum received”);

(f)the Administrator must allocate the buy-out fund in equal shares between each RTF certificate which is counted under article 21(3) or surrendered under sub-paragraph (a), and

(g)the Administrator must make the payments, as soon as reasonably practicable after the date referred to in sub-paragraph (e), to the suppliers who held those RTF certificates at the end of the obligation period.

(3) In the case of any late sum received which the Administrator does not include in the buy-out fund pursuant to paragraph (2)(e) in relation to the obligation period in question (“the principal obligation period”), the Administrator must—

(a)allocate the sums in equal shares between each RTF certificate which is counted under article 21(3) or surrendered under paragraph (2)(a), and

(b)when making payments in relation to a subsequent obligation period, make the payments to the suppliers who held those RTF certificates at the end of the principal obligation period.

(4) For the purposes of paragraphs (2) and (3), a supplier “surrenders” an RTF certificate where the supplier—

(a)does not need the certificate to count towards the discharge of the supplier’s renewable transport fuel obligation (if any) for the obligation period in question;

(b)notifies the Administrator that the supplier renounces any further benefit from holding the certificate, and

(c)claims a share of the buy-out fund for the obligation period in question,

and the RTF certificate is debited from the supplier’s RTF account accordingly.

(5) In the circumstances set out in paragraph (6), the Administrator must make such provision as is fair and reasonable with regard to—

(a)dealing with any sum paid by the supplier under article 21,

(b)allocating shares and making payments under this article, and

(c)any other matter requiring to be dealt with pending and following the final disposal of the court proceedings.

(6) The circumstances referred to are where—

(a)an RTF certificate held by a supplier is revoked,

(b)by way of court proceedings the supplier challenges the decision to revoke, and

(c)the court proceedings have not been finally disposed of by the 28th September immediately following the obligation period in question.