HC Deb 10 April 2001 vol 366 cc491-2W
Mr. Simon Thomas

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales on what date he received notification from the Department of the Environment, Transport and Regions of its recent decision to license GM crop sites in Wales; and if he will make a statement. [157986]

Mr. Paul Murphy

I was aware, as were Assembly Ministers and officials, that sites across the UK were being sought for the second year of the Farm Scale Evaluations programme.

The decision on locations for the trials was taken by the Scientific Steering Committee for the programme, on the basis of advice from the Research Consortium and information about the availability of sites from the Supply Chain Initiative on Modified Agricultural Crops (SCIMAC).

DETR officials informed relevant officials about the three GM maize sites proposed for Wales once they had themselves been notified of the exact locations by SCIMAC. DETR then announced the sites on Tuesday 3 April and wrote to county and community councils in Wales with proposed sites in their areas to provide information about the Farm Scale Evaluation programme.

Any further information on the detail of the announcement would be a matter for the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions.