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Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food

Answer

Mr. Alan Simpson: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, pursuant to his answer of 14 May 1998, Official Report, column 198, if he will list the agricultural species which are not trialled or tested for national list purposes to establish whether they have value for cultivation and use. [46204] Mr. Rooker: Schedule I, Part 1 of the Seeds (National Lists of Varieties) Regulations 1982 (as amended) lists the agricultural species that are subject to national list tests and trials, and the common names of these species are given in the following schedule for information. Schedule 2, Section 5, of the same regulations exempts varieties of grasses not intended for fodder production, and any variety intended for ultimate sale in a Member State which has already accepted it for value for cultivation and use (VCU) purposes, from the VCU requirements that are specified at Schedule 2. Tests and trials and addition to the UK National List are not a requirement for varieties of species that are not subject to the National List regulations. But any genetically modified varieties falling into these latter categories would still require a marketing consent under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 which implements Directive 90/220/EEC. The Seeds (National Lists of Varieties) Regulations 1982 (as amended) Schedule 1--Common names of agricultural plant species _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Species Common name Cereals Oat; barley; rye; triticale; wheat; durum wheat; spelt wheat; maize (except for sweetcorn) Potatoes Potato Beet Sugar beet; fodder beet; mangels Fodder plants (a) grasses Velvet bent; red top; creeping bent; brown top; tall oatgrass; rescue grass; alaska brome grass; cocksfoot; tall fescue; sheeps/hard/fine leaved sheeps fescue; meadow fescue; red fescue/chewings fescue; festulolium; westerwold ryegrass; Italian ryegrass; timothy; annual meadowgrass; wood meadowgrass; smooth stalked meadowgrass; roughstalked meadowgrass (b) legumes Birdsfoot trefoil; white lupin; blue lupin; yellow lupin; black medick; trefoil; lucerne; sainfoin; field pea; alsike clover; red clover; white clover; field bean; hungarian vetch; common vetch; hairy vetch (c) other fodder plants Swede; fodder kale; fodder radish Oil and fibre plants Turnip rape; brown mustard; swede rape (including oilseed rape); black mustard; sunflower; linseed/flax; white mustard; soya bean _________________________________________________________________________________________________.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

314 c415-6W; 46204

Session

1997-98

Subjects

Genetically modified organisms Seeds Technology Research Science