These Regulations amend the Seeds (National Lists of Varieties) Regulations 2001 (S.I.2001/3510) to implement in part Commission Directive 2008/62/EC providing for certain derogations for acceptance of agricultural landraces and varieties which are naturally adapted to the local and regional conditions and threatened by genetic erosion and for marketing of seed and seed potatoes of those landraces and varieties (OJ No L 162, 21.6.08, p 13).

The amendments made to the Seeds (National Lists of Varieties) Regulations 2001 relate to the acceptance of “conservation varieties” on to the National Lists.

Regulation 3 inserts new definitions and regulation 4 makes amendments to allow for the acceptance of conservation varieties on to a National List. Regulation 5 amends the naming provisions and regulation 6 makes amendments to provide that the National Authorities may not accept an application to be a maintainer of a conservation variety unless they are satisfied that the variety can be maintained in its region of origin. Regulation 7 provides that the maintainer of a conservation variety must not maintain that variety except in its region of origin. Regulation 8 amends the requirements in Schedule 2 relating to the distinctness of the variety and makes other consequential amendments.

An impact assessment of the effect of that this instrument will have on the costs of business and the voluntary sector has been prepared and placed in the libraries of both Houses of Parliament. Copies are available, together with a transposition note, from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Plant Variety Rights Office and Seeds Division, Whitehouse Lane, Huntingdon Road, Cambridge CB3 0LF. Copies in Wales are available from the Rural Affairs Directorate, Welsh Assembly Government, Cathays Park, Cardiff CF10 3NQ.