Baroness Byford – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Byford on 2016-04-28.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government which plant protection products are banned for use in the UK but are currently being used in other member states of the EU.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

There is a two-step process before a plant protection product can be placed on the market and used. First, the active substance or active substances contained in the product must be approved EU-wide by the European Commission. Second, the product itself must be authorised by the Member State. Authorisations are determined on the basis of an assessment of the risks to people and to the environment. The approach to the assessment is harmonised across the EU, but the outcomes of applications for the same product may differ because of variations in national conditions.

Companies will decide the Member States from which they wish to seek authorisation and authorisation holders may, at any time, instruct that authorisations are withdrawn.

Product authorisations may therefore vary between Member States. At present, there is no central database of authorisations which records these differences.