HC Deb 15 July 1999 vol 335 cc292-3W
Mr. Yeo

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if the new measures he announced in his oral statement of 21 May 1999,Official Report, columns 1371–73, on biotechnology will enable some commercial planting of genetically modified crops to take place with Government approval. [86128]

Mr. Meacher

[holding answer 8 June 1999]: The new measures announced by my right hon. Friend the Minister for the Cabinet Office in his statement of 21 May were the SCIMAC (Supply Chain Initiative on Modified Agricultural Crops) Code of Practice and Guidelines. General planting of GM crops can take place only with Government approval. At present, no genetically modified (GM) crops have all the necessary approvals for general cultivation.

Mr. Mitchell

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, pursuant to his answers of 22 March 1999,Official Report, columns 41–42, and 16 June 1999, Official Report, columns 135–36, on Parliamentary Scrutiny of Draft Directive 90/220 concerning powers of the Council of Ministers and Commission of the European Community to determine rules for the deliberate release into the environment of genetically-modified organisms; when the relevant draft was debated in the House; and how the directive differed from the draft then considered. [88688]

Mr. Meacher

The position of the Government with regard to the original Commission proposal for the amendment of Directive 90/220 has been laid out in Explanatory Memorandum 6378/98, submitted to the House of Commons on 23 March 1998. I wrote to the House of Commons European Scrutiny Committee on 27 November with further details of the Government's priorities in the negotiations, and the Explanatory Memorandum was debated in the House of Commons European Standing Committee A on 24 March 1999.

The Government submitted a further Explanatory Memorandum (7138/99) on 30 April following the publication of the Commission's amended proposal taking account of the European Parliament's Opinion. The Committee responded in its Nineteenth Report, acknowledging that the main issues had been thoroughly

Reference Applicant Application date Consent issued
R30/3 CPB Twyford Ltd. 12 February 1998 15 June 1998
R15/24 Plant Genetic Systems 16 February 1998 10 July 1998
R22/6 Monsanto plc 20 June 1996 6 August 1996