HL Deb 19 December 1963 vol 254 cc389-91

2.52 p.m.

Order of the Day for the Third Reading read.

EARL ST. ALDWYN

My Lords, I have it in Command from Her Majesty the Queen to signify to the House that Her Majesty, having been informed of the purport of the Plant Varieties and Seeds Bill, has consented to place Her Majesty's Prerogative and interest as far as it is affected by the Bill at the disposal of Parliament for the purposes of the Bill.

LORD ST. OSWALD

My Lords, I beg to move that this Bill be read a third time.

Moved, That the Bill be now read 3a.—(Lord St. Oswald.)

On Question, Bill read 3a.

Clause 21 [Restrictions on sales of seeds of unindexed plant varieties]:

LORD ST. OSWALD: moved, after subsection (2), to insert: (2A) Where any person makes, or proposes to make, arrangements under which some other person uses seed under the control of the first-mentioned person for the purpose of increasing the first-mentioned person's stock, or of carrying out tests or trials, and under which the whole of the material produced, directly or indirectly, from the seed, and any unused seed, becomes or remains the property of the first-mentioned person, subsection (1) of this section shall not applyߞ

  1. (a) to a sale, or offer for sale, of the seed by the first-mentioned person to the other person as part of the arrangements, or
  2. (b) to a sale by that other person to the first-mentioned person of seed produced, directly or indirectly, from that seed."

LORD ST. OSWALD

My Lords, the two Amendments standing on the Order Paper in my name are related, and with your permission I propose to deal with them together. They match the Government Amendments to Schedule 2, to which your Lordships agreed at Report stage. Under the Bill as it stands it is an offence under Clause 21 to sell seed of a new variety until it has been indexed, and under Clause 22 it is an offence to sell seed of a new variety until it has been independently tested and a report issued for the benefit of farmers and growers. But while breeders and seedsmen are waiting for their new varieties to be indexed or tried out, they may want to build up stocks of seed prior to commercialisation. If they do not have enough land of their own, this may mean entering into multiplication contracts with growers. As I explained to your Lordships when I introduced similar Amendments to Schedule 2 at Report stage, these contracts may involve a sale from the seedsmen to the contract grower, and vice versa.

Under the Bill as it stands, any such sale would be illegal and this might prevent such contracts being made. This would be illogical and accordingly the purpose of the Amendments, which do not affect the principle of the clauses, is to exempt these contracting operations from control under the Bill. I beg to move.

Amendment moved— Page 21, line 40, at end insert the said subsection.—(Lord St. Oswald.)

On Question, Amendment agreed to.

Clause 22 [Performance trials and reports for new varieties within a section of the Index]:

LORD ST. OSWALD

My Lords, I beg to move the next Amendment.

Amendment movedx2014;

Page 23, line 26, at end insertx2014; ("(6) Subsection (4) of this section shall not apply to any sale or offer for sale of the kind described in subsection (2A) of the last foregoing section, and subsection (5) of this section shall not apply to the use of seed for the purpose of carrying out tests or trials.").—(Lord St. Oswald.)

On Question, Amendment agreed to.

An Amendment (privilege) made: Bill passed, and sent to the Commons.