Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:33 pm on 26 January 2021.
Thank you. We considered these regulations yesterday morning, and our report has been laid to inform this afternoon's debate. Our report contains one technical reporting point. We have raised this reporting point as we believe one aspect of the regulations requires further explanation. The regulations permit the Welsh Ministers to authorise the marketing of vegetable seed that is not listed on the Great Britain variety list, provided an application has been made for entry into the Great Britain variety list or the Northern Ireland variety list. However, under the regulations, the authorisation may be requested by the person who has submitted an application for entry of the varieties concerned onto the Great Britain variety list, the Northern Ireland variety list or a list of a country granted equivalence. It is not immediately clear to us why a person who submits an application for entry onto an equivalent list is permitted to request authorisation from the Welsh Ministers in these circumstances. This is because a condition of authorisation is that an application has been made for entry into the Great Britain variety list or the Northern Ireland variety list and not an equivalent list. We therefore asked for the Welsh Government's views on this apparent inconsistency. We welcome the Welsh Government's response, advising that our concern is to be addressed, that it will come back to us on this issue in due course. We also note as a result that the Welsh Government has opened discussions with the UK Government because the provisions are connected to a variety listing regime that applies to Great Britain. Diolch.