§ Mr. PaiceTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what Regulatory Impact Assessment she has obtained for her review of charges for Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species licences and permits. [184713]
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§ Mr. MorleyThe Department issued a consultation on CITES charges on 1 April 2004. At this stage, a partial Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) has been completed and was issued with the consultation documents to stakeholders.
A partial RIA follows on from an initial RIA carried out at the first stages of policy development, it is informed by discussion, data gathering and informal consultations and in liaison with the Small Business Service.
§ Mr. PaiceTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the(a) cost to pet retailers of selling individual Hermann's tortoises and (b) cost to wholesalers importing large numbers of Hermann's tortoises as a consequence of the proposed charges for Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species licences and permits. [184714]
§ Mr. MorleyNo specific assessment has been made within the regulatory impact assessment of the effects on pet retailers selling tortoises. However, the assessments made over a range of traders in CITES protected species assume that the additional costs will be passed on to the consumer and that costs will rise by the amount of the proposed increase in the fee levels.
As a general practice wholesale importers apply for an import permit to cover a number of specimens of the same species and their costs will therefore be lower when apportioned between individual specimens.
§ Mr. PaiceTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the cost to UK breeders of Hermann's tortoises resulting from the proposed changes to charges for Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species licences and permits. [184715]
§ Mr. MorleyThe partial Regulatory Impact Assessment developed for the consultation looked at a small sample of different businesses and how they might be affected by the proposed increases. UK breeders of Hermann's tortoises were not one of the businesses sampled.
The final Regulatory Impact Assessment, which will accompany any legislation, will be developed in the light of the information given during the consultation period and any further analysis indicated will be carried out before a final decision on how to proceed with the question of charges for CITES licences and permits.