§ Dr. CableTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what plans he has to authorise further field-scale trials of genetically modified crops. [103775]
§ Mr. MeacherI announced a renewed voluntary agreement with industry on the conduct of the farm scale evaluation programme on 5 November 1999. Under the agreement, plantings for the farm scale GM crop evaluations are limited to 20–25 fields per crop per year, subject to the advice and requirements of the independent Scientific Steering Committee overseeing the programme. This covers the plantings through to 2002 for the crops in the programme—GM fodder maize, and spring and winter oilseed rape, all modified to be tolerant to a herbicide. Subject to the advice of the Scientific Steering Committee, a fourth crop, beet modified to be tolerant to 213W a herbicide, may be included in the programme for the same three years. Proposals for any other field scale plantings of these crops during the farm scale evaluation period will be decided by the Scientific Steering Committee, taking into account the relevance of the proposals to biodiversity.