Consultation on Seed Certification Fee increase England and Wales

Plant Variety Rights Office and Seeds Division
White House Lane, Huntingdon Road
Cambridge, CB3 0LF

Telephone: 01223 342384
Fax: 01223 342386

27  March 2009

Dear Consultee

Consultation on Seed Certification Fee Increase in England And Wales

  1. I am writing to invite your views on proposals by Defra (*see note) and the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) for new seed certification fees which we aim to introduce from 6 July 2009.
Seed Certification
  1. Enclosed with this letter are details of the proposed new fee scale which is a 5% increase across all fee categories.  You will note that there continues to be a reduced fee for applications submitted using the online system (ESP).
Annual Licence Fee - Licensed Seed Testing Stations
  1. In our letter to all Licensed Seed Testing Stations dated 2 April 2008 we indicated that we were going to bring the annual licence fee in line with other certification fees.  The annual licence fee for 2008/09 ran from 1 April 2008 to 30 June 2009 and from 2009 will run from 1 July 2009 to 30 June 2010.  A  5% increase has been applied to the licence fee.
Background
  1. The fees structure in England and Wales was last reviewed in 2006 and the new fees structure and rates were introduced in July 2007. During 2007 and 2008, NIAB our major service provider, has applied continuous improvements and efficiency measures to contain the cost of seed certification activities. These measures, coupled with a significant move away from paper to on line applications with lower fees for applicants and a lower unit costs for PVS, has to date kept fees at 2007 levels. However, costs have risen over recent months and the latest estimates for 2008/2009 show a small short fall, with further increases in costs anticipated for 2009/2010. The proposed fee increase is in line with inflationary increases applied to the unit costs and takes account of the anticipated shortfall. As you will be aware seed certification is required to meet full cost recovery and we are therefore proposing to raise fees for all seed certification services by 5%.  

You may be interested to know that during 2008, following consultation with users, the online service has been subject to a number a major enhancements. It now offers a more reliable and efficient service.

Responses
  1. If you would like to comment on the fee proposals, please respond in writing, by post, fax, or e-mail, no later than 19 June 2009 to:

Tony Watts
Defra Plant Varieties and Seeds Division
White House Lane
Huntingdon Road
Cambridge CB3 OLF
Tel:      01223 342374
Fax:     01223 342386
E-mail: Tony.a.watts@defra.gsi.gov.uk

Consultation Criteria
  1. This consultation has been prepared in line with the government code of practice which is available from the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.  This can be viewed at www.berr.gov.uk/bre/consultation%20guidance/page44459.html
  2. When this consultation ends, we intend to put a copy of the responses in the Defra library at Ergon House, London.  This is so that the public can see them.  Also, members of the public may ask for a copy of responses under Freedom of Information legislation.
  3. If you do not want your response - including your name, contact details and any other personal information – to be publicly available, please say so clearly in writing when you send your response to the consultation.  Please note, if your computer automatically includes a confidentiality disclaimer, that won’t count as a confidentiality request.
  4. Please explain why you need to keep details confidential.  We will take your reasons into account if someone asks for this information under Freedom of Information legislation.  But, because of the law, we cannot promise that we will always be able to keep those details confidential. 
  5. A summary of responses will be placed on our website at www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/.  This summary will include a list of names of organisations that responded but not people’s personal names, addresses or other contact details. 

To see consultation responses and summaries, please contact the library at:
Defra
Information Resource Centre
Lower Ground Floor
Ergon House
17 Smith Square
London
SW1P 3JR

Telephone: 020-7238-6575
Email:  defra.library@defra.gsi.gov.uk

Please give the library 24 hours’ notice.  There is a charge for photocopying and postage.

  1. If you have any comments or complaints about the consultation process, please address them to Marjorie Addo, Defra’s Consultation Co-ordinator, Area 7C Nobel House,17 Smith Square, London SW1P 3JR, or email: consultation.coordinator@defra.gsi.gov.uk.
  2. Thank you for your help in this matter.  If you have any queries please contact us as above.
  3. If you wish to see the consultation documents please go to:
    www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/seed-cert/

Yours faithfully,

Andy Mitchell
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

 

Note
Defra's Plant Variety Rights Office and Seeds Division is merging with the Plant Health Division (including Bee Health and the Plant Health and Seeds Inspectorate), the Central Science Laboratory and the UK Government Decontamination Service on 1 April 2009 to form a new Agency called: The Food and Environment Research Agency.
For more information visit http://services.csl.gov.uk/fera

Page published: 27 March 2009