§ Mr. Win GriffithsTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1) if he will list the(a) herbicides,(b) fungicides and (c) pesticides which are banned in other EU member states but are approved for use in the United Kingdom, indicating the conditions attached to their use; [75495]
(2) he will list the (a) herbicides, (b) pesticides and (c) fungicides which have restrictions on their use in other (i) European Union and (ii) G7 countries and which are used in the United Kingdom without similar restrictions. [75498]
§ Mr. Rooker[holding answer 10 March 1999]: All 18 countries of the EU and G7 have regulatory systems that only permit pesticides (including herbicides and fungicides) to be used once they have been authorised by government. This means that a common reason why a pesticide is not authorised in one of these countries is that no application for authorisation has been made for commercial reasons. When the use of a pesticide is allowed, specific restrictions on use may be imposed by the government concerned, but these could reflect differences in climate, ecology and application methods available as well as the crop to be protected and the pest to be targeted.
While the EU produces lists of active substances of agricultural pesticides authorised for use in each Member State, there are no systematic arrangements for Member States to pool information about the decisions they make or the reasons for them. Similarly, the G7 countries do not exchange information about restrictions on the use of authorised agricultural pesticides. The information requested therefore cannot be provided.
In the UK, all herbicides, fungicides and other pesticides are strictly controlled. The government keep pesticides under review and do not hesitate to ban or restrict products if this is warranted. We also require companies to submit any potentially adverse information which comes to their attention, including studies generated at the request of another country's authorities.
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§ Mr. Win GriffithsTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list(a) herbicides, (b) pesticides and (c) fungicides on the Red List which have been approved for use in agriculture and horticulture, indicating the conditions attached to their use. [75415]
§ Mr. Rooker[holding answer 10 March 1999]: Eight of the twenty three substances on the Red List are contained in pesticides approved for use in agriculture and horticulture. Atrazine, simazine and trifluralin are approved as herbicides, and gamma-hexachlorocyclohexane (lindane), dichlorvos, fenitrothion, malathion and endosulfan are approved as insecticides. In considering the approval or review of a pesticide, an assessment is made of the risk to the aquatic environment. Only if this assessment shows that there is no unacceptable risk will approval be granted or allowed to continue.
All pesticides are subject to strict statutory control. General conditions relating to use are imposed by Schedules 3 and 4 to the Control of Pesticides Regulations 1986 (as amended by the Control of Pesticides (Amendment) Regulations 1997). There are 166 products approved containing these eight pesticides and I shall write to my hon. Friend to set out the specific conditions attached to the use of these particular products.