Terms of Approval
The Format of the Regulatory Body
ENTRUST is the Environmental Trust Scheme Regulatory Body Limited, a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee (company number 03221000). ENTRUST regulates the Landfill Communities Fund (formerly the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme) under agreement with HM Revenue & Customs. The basis of this agreement is the Terms of Approval, which outline alongside the Landfill Tax Regulations 1996 and subsequent amendments how ENTRUST should regulate. Find following the details of this agreement:
Wording of the Terms of Approval
The Commissioners of HM Revenue & Customs ("the Commissioners") hereby approve Environmental Trust Scheme Regulatory Body Limited, trading as "Entrust", under regulation 35 of the Landfill Tax Regulations 1996 (as amended) ("the Regulations") to act as the regulatory body for environmental bodies.
This Approval is subject to the following conditions which may be amended or added to.
Organisation of Regulatory Body
1. The Regulatory Body is to be a company limited by guarantee.
2. The Regulatory Body is required to abide by its Memorandum and Articles of Association.
3. The Regulatory Body shall seek the agreement of the Commissioners to any proposals to amend its Memorandum and Articles of Association. Such agreement shall not be withheld unreasonably.
4. To assist the Regulatory Body to carry out its duties, a good balance of skills shall be required of Non-Executive Directors. They shall possess broad experience and knowledge of the public, private and voluntary sectors and where possible reflect the UK wide coverage of the Scheme. There shall not be such a number of non-executive directors appointed for their knowledge and experience of one area of the private, public or voluntary sector as to give the perception of undue influence.
5. Accounts shall be independently audited. Annual audited accounts shall be submitted within 10 months of the end of the company's accounting year to the Commissioners.
6. An annual report shall be presented to the Commissioners and published by the 31 March for the preceding calendar year. The annual report shall contain: Purpose, priorities and organisation of the company Performance against priorities established at the start of the year Statistical information relating to approvals and revocations of environmental bodies Statistical information relating to contributions received and spent by environmental bodies (both in the year and since 1 October 1996) Statistical information relating to contributions spent on each approved object (both in the year and since 1 October 1996)
Performance of Regulatory Body's functions:
Approval and Enrolment of Environmental Bodies
7. The regulatory body shall approve all environmental bodies that meet the legal requirements, and enrol them, within 10 working days of sufficient information becoming available to do so and the requisite application fee being paid. An enrolment number shall be allocated to each environmental body. Applicants shall be notified in writing of approval or rejection within 5 working days of a decision, with reasons, if approval is refused.8. The Regulatory Body shall maintain systems for checking applications for enrolment against criteria laid down in regulation 33 of the Regulations. These systems shall include risk indicators agreed with the Commissioners and reviewed at agreed intervals.
9. The Regulatory Body shall publish at least annually:-
- A register of approved Environmental Bodies
- The total LCF contributions received by approved environmental bodies.
- The total LCF contributions spent by approved environmental bodies to approved objects.
Assurance Activity
10. The Regulatory Body shall carry out, based on risk assessment criteria agreed with the Commissioners and reviewed at agreed intervals, sufficient checks on the accounts and records of approved bodies and the sites of approved schemes, to satisfy itself that the contributions have been spent on approved purposes and that approved bodies continue to be entitled to approval. It shall maintain systems for monitoring spending of contributions by approved bodies against criteria laid down in regulation 30(2) of the Regulations. These risk assessment systems shall include risk indicators agreed with the Commissioners and reviewed at agreed intervals.11. To the extent that it is entitled by law to do so, the regulatory body shall ensure that contributions made by individual landfill site operators, and other sensitive commercial information obtained as a result of its responsibilities, are protected from unauthorised disclosure.
12. The Regulatory Body shall maintain records of the contributing third parties notified to it.
Revocation of approval of Environmental Bodies
13. The Regulatory Body may withdraw approval where an approved body ceases to meet the legal requirements as laid down in regulation 33A of the Regulations 1996 (as amended). When relevant, such action should take place within 20 working days of such failures coming to its attention. Environmental bodies whose approvals are revoked shall be notified in writing , with reasons, within 5 working days of revocation.
14. The Regulatory Body shall publish, within 5 working days of decisions, details of environmental bodies whose approvals it has revoked.
Notification of transfers
15. The Regulatory Body shall, when notified of a transfer of contributions to or from an approved body, notify in writing, quarterly, the details to the contributing landfill site operators and, if relevant, the contributing third parties when requested to do so.
Appeals
16. The Regulatory Body shall maintain a mechanism to permit appeals against decisions to refuse to enrol, or to withdraw approval of, environmental bodies or decisions that expenditure was non-compliant.
Measurement of performance
17. The regulatory body shall annually agree with the Commissioners priorities to achieve the regulatory body's functions as set out in these Terms of Approval, and a series of indicators to measure performance against targets.
Operational Fees
18. The amount of the application fee for each environmental body shall be £100 or such lesser amount as the Regulatory Body may require.19. In addition to the application fee, a percentage of qualifying contributions received by each approved body is to be paid to the Regulatory Body. The amount payable is to be 2 percent of each qualifying contribution. The provision shall be reviewed annually by the regulatory body and the Commissioners.
20. Any surplus from application fees or percentages of contributions paid to the regulatory body for its operating costs shall be carried forward, used or repaid as the members of the regulatory body direct, in accordance with the Memorandum and Articles of Association, after satisfying the company's obligations.
Exchange of information
21. The Regulatory Body shall notify the Commissioners in writing within 10 working days of becoming aware of a significant breach of the Regulations or a proposal to withdraw approval of an environmental body.22. The Regulatory Body shall provide such information, at such a frequency and in such form as the Commissioners may request to enable them: (a) to ensure the terms of this Approval are met; and (b) to be satisfied the landfill tax environmental bodies credit scheme ("the scheme") is operating correctly, including the information detailed in paragraphs 22 and 23 of this approval.
23. The Regulatory Body shall provide the Commissioners by the tenth working day of each month with details of all approvals/revocations of approvals. This information shall comprise the: name and enrolment number of body date of enrolment effective date from which enrolment ceased
24. The Regulatory Body shall provide the Commissioners by the tenth working day of each month with details of contributions received by each approved body and declared to them in proceeding month. These details shall include the: name and landfill tax registration number of contributor date of each contribution reference number of each contribution amount of each contribution running total of contributions.
25. The Regulatory Body shall advise the Commissioners of any practices or projects discovered during the performance of its duties that, while strictly compliant with the requirements of the Regulations, could bring the scheme into disrepute.
26. The Regulatory Body shall grant the Commissioners unrestricted access to all records relating to approved bodies, those refused enrolment, and those whose enrolment has been withdrawn and at reasonable notice (to be given in writing), to release to the Commissioners any records or copies of records they may reasonably require, and to give any oral or written explanations that the Commissioners may request.
27. The Regulatory Body shall provide access to any records the Commissioners may reasonably require to examine as evidence of compliance with this Approval, and give any oral or written explanations that the Commissioners may request.
28. For the purpose of (a) the examination and certification of the Commissioners' accounts, or, (b) any examination pursuant to Section 6(1) of the National Audit Act 1983 or any re-enactment thereof of the economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which the Commissioners has used its resources, the Comptroller and Auditor General may examine such documents relating to the operation of the scheme as he may reasonably require which are owned, held or otherwise within the control of the regulatory body, and may require the regulatory body to produce such oral or written explanations as he considers necessary. For the avoidance of doubt it is hereby declared that the carrying out of an examination under Section 6(3)(d) of the National Audit Act 1983 or any re-enactment thereof in relation to the regulatory body is not a function exercisable under this agreement.
29. The Chairman of the Regulatory Body shall provide an annual statement to the Commissioners that the terms of this Approval have been complied with, at time of issue of Annual Report including details of performance against priorities established at the start of the year.
General
30. The Regulatory Body shall publish guidance on the operation of the scheme and answer enquiries relating to the scheme.31. The Regulatory Body shall take advice on the operation of the scheme from representatives of approved bodies.
32. The Regulatory Body shall invite a representative of the Commissioners to attend its Board meetings, statutory meetings, and other formal meetings relating to its regulatory role as an observer.
33. The Regulatory Body shall allow the Commissioners to undertake Benchmarking reviews of its performance.