§ Mr. FaberTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what progress has been made towards establishing the pesticides safety division as an executive agency; and if he will make a statement.
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§ Mr. GummerI am pleased to confirm that pesticides safety division is to be established as an executive agency of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food on 1 April 1993, when it will become the pesticides safety directorate.
I have set the directorate the following targets for 1993–94, relating to financial performance, efficiency and the delivery of pesticide approval services.
The financial and efficiency targets will be:
- 100 per cent. recovery of full costs; and
- an overall efficiency gain of 2 per cent.
The targets for delivery of pesticide approval services will be:
Type of approval Applications completed Maximum processing time (working days) Technical secretariat stream Normal 400 450 Administrative fast 250 20 Fast 370 125 Experimental permits 70 200 Off label (emergency) 150 60 Rapid 75 125 Upgrade 100 — Committee stream Sift 21 120 Active ingredient 15 250–290 For 1993–94, the targets for maximum processing time will apply to 75 per cent. of the applications received in the year. This percentage is planned to increase progressively in future years.
In addition, the scientific quality of the directorate's work on the evaluation of pesticides will be monitored by the chairman of the Advisory Committee on Pesticides.
A copy of the directorate's framework document is being placed in the Library of the House.