§ Lord Beaumont of Whitleyasked Her Majesty's Government:
What are the minimum requirements for carrying out official examinations of tests and trials of those varieties of maize in respect of which an application has been made for entry onto a national list; and whether they will place in the Library of the House a copy of the documents setting out the requirements for such examinations. [HL774]
§ Baroness HaymanRegulation 11(1) of the Seeds (National Lists of Varieties) Regulations 1982 (as amended) requires Ministers "to conduct or make arrangements for such tests and trials of a plant variety which is the subject of an application for entry in a National List as appears to them to be necessary to establish that it conforms to the requirements of schedule 2 of these regulations". Schedule 2 sets out the requirements that a candidate variety must be distinct, uniform and stable (DUS) and, for agricultural varieties, have a value for cultivation and use (VCU) in the UK. In making the arrangements referred to above, Ministers require VCU trials to be conducted in accordance with an official protocol. Such protocols are subject to regular review by the testing authorities.
DUS tests for maize are carried out in France under a bilateral agreement with the French testing authorities which submit a DUS report to the UK authorities.
A copy of the current VCU protocol for forage maize has been placed in the Library of the House.
§ Lord Beaumont of Whitleyasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether there has been any import into the United Kingdom of genetically modified maize 71WA covered by Commission Decision 98/293/EC dated 22 April 1998; and, if so, whether they will provide details. [HL776]
§ Baroness HaymanGenetically modified (GM) maize covered by Commission Decision 98/293/EC has been grown commercially in the US since 1998. Since it is not segregated from conventionally produced maize, it is likely that most imports into the UK from this source since 1998 will have contained some of the GM variety. Most maize comes into the country in the form of processed products, such as maize gluten, for use in animal feed. Previous work has shown that such processing breaks down the genetic material into very small fragments of DNA.