§ Mr. Martyn JonesTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on the effect of the Seeds (National List of Varieties) (Fees) (Amendment) Regulations (SI 1995 No. 607); what is the highest percentage increase in fees on crops; and what assessment he has made of the effect of the introduction of a fee for a winter oilseed rape variety. [18396]
§ Mr. JackThese regulations implement the final stage of a review of the statutory plant variety trialling system, which reduced the overall number of trial sites and hence the overall costs. The industry was fully consulted and agreed the proposals. Part of this agreement included the reintroduction of statutory trial fees over two years from 1 April 1994. The cost to the industry of such fees is more than offset by the savings arising from the reduced trialling system and the transfer of disease testing costs to Government. The net effect of these arrangements was to reduce the overall costs to the industry by about 10 per cent.
Since the industry agreed to the above arrangements in advance, I foresee no adverse effect from the introduction of statutory trial fees for winter oilseed rape varieties.