The Marketing of Fruit Plant and Propagating Material (Wales) Regulations 2017

I accept the points raised by the Committee and acknowledge the deadline for transposing the EU Directives was missed and the 21 day rule was breached, for the reasons set out in the Explanatory Memorandum.

The 2017 Regulations formalise the previous voluntary scheme administered by the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) and the main industry representative organisation, the Nuclear Stocks Association (NSA). One company in Wales is directly affected by this legislation who are a member of the NSA and, at a meeting in December 2016, the NSA were updated on progress in implementing the EU Regulations.  At the meeting all parties were aware the Regulations would miss the transposition date of 1 January 2017 and it was unlikely the Regulations would come in to force until May 2017 at the earliest.

In January 2017, guidance for commercial growers regarding the new scheme was published. Inspections for the certification scheme are conducted annually from June and the industry will have been preparing for these in line with the new requirements.