This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Views sought on GM regulations
24/07/2002
Proposals for the legislation which will govern the growing of GM crops in future were published today.
The draft regulations are contained within an Executive consultation document which is being widely distributed. The public are being given an opportunity to comment before the legislation is considered by the Scottish Parliament in the autumn.
The draft regulations will put into effect a number of changes to the way the deliberate release of genetically modified organisms is controlled following a strengthening of the European Directive.
The draft regulations propose that in future:
- there will be a mandatory requirement to invite public comments on applications (until now it has been voluntary) and to take account of public views;
- a greater onus will be placed on the applicant to notify local communities in the vicinity of proposed trials;
- the scientific scrutiny of applications will cover indirect and long-term effects of GMO releases on the environment. This will require that an examination of the wider impacts on biodiversity (such as is being undertaken in the farm scale evaluations) will become compulsory rather than voluntary as at present; and
- post-market monitoring will become a requirement, under which any GMO that is granted a consent to be used commercially in the EU must be monitored for unanticipated effects on the environment.
Along with the other proposed changes, these measures are intended to produce a regulatory system which can be more readily understood by both potential applicants and the public alike. Each stage of the process will be transparent with information made available to the public on the release and marketing of GMOs.
Much of current practice in Scotland, for example the provision of a public register of GMO releases, discouraging use of antibiotic resistance markers and extended periods of notifications has been undertaken voluntarily in advance of the new regulations. The new legislation will therefore place many current practices on a statutory rather than voluntary footing.
Comments have been invited by the Scottish Executive before 15 October 2002. Other parts of the UK are operating to a similar timetable and, consequently, the UK will not therefore meet the 17 October target date for implementation. Ministers consider it important that the public are given adequate time to consider these proposals and to comment and have therefore insisted on a 12 week consultation period.
The UK Government, the National Assembly for Wales and the Department of Environment for Northern Ireland are conducting separate consultations on their equivalent draft legislation. The implementing legislation in all areas of the UK is derived from the same European Directive and therefore follows a broadly similar approach subject to regional legal differences.
Following completion of this consultation exercise, the comments will be considered and revised regulations will be placed before the Scottish Parliament. After scrutiny by Parliament the agreed regulations should come into force before the end of the year.