§ Mr. BakerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions by what methods the Environment Agency record facilities which use genetically modified organisms in industrial processes and which may release these organisms in waste streams; what is the location of the facilities; and what genetically modified substances are produced. [56332]
§ Mr. Meacher[holding answer 26 October 1998]: The Environment Agency is required by section 64 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to maintain a register of waste management licences which it has issued for the recovery or disposal of waste. The register is open for inspection by members of the public free of charge. The information which must be included on the register is set out in regulation 10 of the Waste Management Licensing Regulations 1994. It is not possible separately to identify from the register those facilities which dispose of waste derived from GMOs as opposed to other types of waste.
Under separate legislation, the Genetically Modified Organisms (Contained Use) Regulations 1992 (as amended in 1996 and 1998), all premises which undertake activities with GMOs in containment are notified to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The Contained Use Regulations also require that all GMOs which have a potential to cause harm to humans or the environment are inactivated before they are disposed of. There is no explicit requirement to inactivate those GMOs which would not cause harm and which would have limited survival in the environment. However, there is a requirement that physical barriers are in place. It is HSE's experience that users of large scale facilities routinely inactivate all GMOs prior to disposal.
There are 34 large scale facilities notified to HSE, although not all of these are necessarily undertaking large scale work at this time. A list of these will be placed in the Library of the House. Not all of these large scale facilities are for industrial production. Some undertake only research. HSE does not hold the data requested on all large scale activities undertaken. The data that are held are not in an easily retrievable form and where the substance produced is not a live GMO this falls outside of the scope of the Contained Use Regulations. Therefore, I regret that I cannot give a list of the genetically modified substances produced.
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§ Mr. BakerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what acreage of land used as trial sites for GM crops is currently under cultivation. [57225]
§ Mr. MealeThere are approximately 717 acres of land currently under cultivation with trials of GM crops in the UK.