§ Mr. BreedTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to her answer of 26 September 20002,Official Report, column 247W, on GM crops, how many tests for unauthorised genetically modified organisms have been undertaken by the GM Inspectorate; and what proportion of them showed a presence of unauthorised genetically modified organisms. [75838]
§ Mr. Meacher[holding answer 21 October 2002]: The GM Inspectorate has the authority to carry out testing for the presence of GMOs in two contexts: first, as part of inspection of authorised releases of GMOs into the environment, and, secondly, in support of the audit of seed importers and producers to ensure that non-GM seed stocks are free from unauthorised GM events.
Testing as part of the inspection of authorised releases of GMOs is carried out whenever there is reason to believe that material in addition to that for which consent is held has been released or to confirm the GM status of volunteer plants and bolters. However, the issue of testing of released GMOs is being considered as part of the proposed review inspection and enforcement activities. Since June 2000, there have been 3 tests (comprised of 41 analytical tests) of seed prior to sowing to confirm its purity and 32 tests of volunteers and bolters. None of these tests showed the presence of unauthorised GMOs.
Since June 2000 the GM Inspectorate has carried out a total of 86 audits of seed companies. These audits have monitored the precautions that seed companies have taken as regards the adventitious presence of GM events in seeds. As part of this process a series of tests (18) have been carried out to clarify results presented by seed companies. In no case was the presence of an unauthorised GMO detected.