§ Mr. BakerTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what plans he has for new regulations under section 16(2) of the Food and Environment Protection Act 1985. [41525]
§ Mr. RookerWe have plans to amend the Control of Pesticides Regulations 1986 and the Plant Protection Products (Basic Conditions) Regulations 1997 by means of new regulations. If the Pesticides Bill passes into law, as the Government hope, the existing Regulations will be amended to improve the arrangements for public access to information and also to extend to local authorities certain powers to seize and dispose of pesticides. In addition, the Government intend to remove the age exemption from the requirement for users of agricultural pesticides to hold a certificate of competence.
We shall consult widely on these proposals.
§ Mr. BakerTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is his policy in respect of the photocopying of information relating to pesticides, in cases where that information may be inspected by the public. [41526]
§ Mr. RookerThe Government's policy is to make as much information about pesticides available to the public as possible. Constraints are therefore kept to the minimum necessary to protect personal information, commercial secrets and intellectual property rights.
Documents detailing the evaluation of pesticide compounds carried out by the Advisory Committee on Pesticides are available for inspection or purchase by the public. The individual scientific studies underlying these documents are available for inspection but we do not allow photocopies to be taken because of the potential for such material to be misused for the purpose of gaining a pesticide approval.
§ Mr. BakerTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many products containing glufosinate ammonium he has(a) approved and (b) refused to approve; and if he will place a copy of all approvals and any extensions in the Library. [41523]
198W
§ Mr. Rooker44 products containing glufosinate-ammonium have been granted one or more approvals by Ministers; and Ministers have refused to approve the uses requested for 1 product containing glufosinate-ammonium.
I have placed a list of all the 44 products which have gained one or more approvals in the Library of the House. Individual approvals include the application documents and any subsequent correspondence from the applicant. As such, they contain commercially sensitive data and, therefore, we do not publish them.
§ Mr. BakerTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many of the approvals he has given or extended for products containing glufosinate ammonium allow use near to, or in connection with, the production of edible crops. [41524]
§ Mr. RookerThere are 60 extant approvals allowing use near to, or in connection with, the production of edible crops which relate to the 44 glufosinate-containing products which have been approved by Ministers.