SUSTAINABLE USE OF PESTICIDES (11896/06,
11902/06)
Letter from the Chairman to Lord Rooker,
Minister of State for Sustainable Food and Farming, Department
for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
At its meeting on 25 October 2006 Sub-Committee
D considered the above document and your accompanying Explanatory
Memorandum (11902/06) dated 2 October 2006.
We welcome the Thematic Strategy and are content
to clear it from scrutiny. We will however be examining carefully
the individual legislative items which come forward under this
Strategy.
2 November 2006
Letter from the Chairman to Lord Rooker
At its meeting on 25 October 2006 Sub-Committee
D considered the above document and your accompanying Explanatory
Memorandum (11896/06) dated 2 October 2006.
The Committee supports the principles behind
the Directive. We note however that the United Kingdom already
has a relatively well advanced regime with regard to this sector,
and that consequently a significant number of the proposed provisions
are already in place. We would wish to see further provisions
as complementing rather than duplicating the existing UK regulatory
framework. The Committee is also concerned, in the light of the
success of initiatives such as "The Voluntary Initiative",
to ensure that any measures adopted at the EU level do not introduce
an unnecessary level of "red tape" into situations where
a voluntary approach is already succeeding.
We share your concerns regarding the potential
derogation for aerial spraying and agree that strict provisions
must be drawn up on this with clarity.
In the light of the above, we are retaining
the proposal under scrutiny pending further information on the
outcome of Stakeholder consultations and on progress of discussions
at Council level.
2 November 2006
Letter from Lord Rooker to the Chairman
When your Committee considered these Explanatory
Memoranda at their meeting of 25 October, they were retained under
a scrutiny reserve pending submission of details of the outcome
of the public consultation.
The consultation identified key elements of
the proposals, outlined the Governments initial views and sought
comments on stakeholder views. It ran from September to December
last year and we have now completed our analysis of the responses.
We received a total of 35 responses commenting
on the Thematic Strategy itself and the two pieces of legislation
which are central to it. Additionally stakeholders provided a
small amount of information on the costs associated with aspects
of the proposals. These will enable us to better assess the impact
of the proposals on UK industry, but are not expected to differ
greatly from those identified in the initial RIAs.
A paper presenting an analysis of the consultation
responses we received is attached. This is also being made available
on the website of the Pesticides Safety Directorate at www.pesticides.gov.uk.
14 March 2007
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