Seeds (National Lists of Varieties) Regulations 1979
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | SI 1979/133 |
| Year | 1979 |
1979 No. 133
SEEDS
The Seeds (National Lists of Varieties) Regulations 19798thFebruary 1979
19thFebruary 1979
12thMarch 1979
The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Secretary of State for Scotland, the Secretary of State for Wales and the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, acting jointly, in exercise of the powers conferred on them by section 16(1), (1A) and (8) of the Plant Varieties and Seeds Act 1964(a) as amended by section 4(1) of and paragraph 5(1), (2) and (3) of Schedule 4 to the European Communities Act 1972(b) (extended to Northern Ireland by the Plant Varieties and Seeds (Northern Ireland) Order 1964(c) and the Plant Varieties and Seeds (Northern Ireland) Order 1973(d)), and now vested in them(e) and of all other powers enabling them in that behalf, after consultation with the Council on Tribunals in accordance with section 10(1) of the Tribunals and Inquiries Act 1971(f) as applied to the Plant Varieties and Seeds Tribunal and with representatives of such interests as appear to them to be concerned, hereby make the following regulations:—
Citation and Commencement
1. These regulations may be cited as the Seeds (National Lists of Varieties) Regulations 1979, and shall come into operation on 12th March 1979.
Revocation of Previous Regulations
2. The Seeds (National Lists of Varieties) Regulations 1973(g) are hereby revoked.
Interpretation
3.—(1) A reference in these regulations to a numbered regulation or Schedule shall be construed as a reference to the regulation or Schedule bearing that number in these regulations.
(2) In these regulations—
"the Act" means the Plant Varieties and Seeds Act 1964 as amended by section 43 of and Schedule 7 to the Agriculture (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1968(h) and by section 4(1) of and paragraph 5 of Schedule 4 to the European Communities Act 1972;
"Common Catalogue" means, as the case may be, either the Common Catalogue of varieties of kinds of agricultural plants or the Common Catalogue of varieties of vegetables, published in the Official Journal of the European Communities;
(a) 1964 c. 14.
(b) 1972 c. 68.
(c) S.I. 1964/1574.
(d) S.I. 1973/609.
(e) In the case of the Secretary of State for Wales, by virtue of S.I. 1978/272.
(f) 1971 c. 62.
(g) S.I. 1973/994.
(h) 1968 c. 34.
"the gazette" means the Plant Varieties and Seeds Gazette published in accordance with section 34(1) of the Act;
"Member State" means a member of the European Communities other than the United Kingdom;
"the Ministers" means the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Secretary of State for Scotland, the Secretary of State for Wales and the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland acting jointly;
"National List" means a list of plant varieties prepared and published in accordance with Regulation 4 of these regulations;
"plant breeders' rights" means rights which may be granted in accordance with Part 1 of the Act;
"plant variety" means any clone, line, hybrid or genetic variant;
"the Tribunal" means the Plant Varieties and Seeds Tribunal established by section 10 of and Schedule 4 to the Act as respectively amended by paragraph 5(5) of Schedule 4 to the European Communities Act 1972.
National Lists
4. The Ministers shall for the purposes of these regulations prepare and publish in the gazette National Lists of plant varieties (not being plant varieties which are intended for use only as hereditary sources of hybrid or synthetic plant varieties) of the kinds specified in Schedule 1, and may for the purposes of a National List establish or arrange for the establishment of a reference collection of plant material.
5.—(1) At any time after the publication of a National List the Ministers may—
(a) entertain applications from persons seeking additions to, corrections in or removals from any such list and, subject to the succeeding provisions of these regulations and to the payment of any fee imposed by regulations made under the Act, may grant or refuse such applications, or
(b) in relation to plant varieties which have been entered in a list of a Member State corresponding to a National List, make such additions to the National List as appear to them to be desirable.
(2) If there is more than one application for the addition of the same plant variety to a National List the Ministers shall entertain the application which was the first to be made.
(3) The Ministers shall publish in the gazette any additions to, corrections in or removals from a National List.
6. The Ministers shall publish in the gazette in respect of each plant variety in relation to which there is an obligation to maintain such plant variety in accordance with Regulation 18 either the name and address of the person responsible for such maintenance or, where a number of persons are so responsible, an indication of the source from which their names and addresses may be obtained.
Applications
7. An application made in pursuance of these regulations shall be made in writing on a form supplied by the Ministers.
8. Where any document submitted in support of an application is in a language other than the English language it shall, unless the Ministers otherwise direct, be accompanied by a complete and adequate translation thereof into the English language.
9. The application and any documents submitted in support thereof shall be delivered or sent by post in a properly addressed pre-paid letter to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.
10. Where an application is made by a person who does not reside in the United Kingdom he shall, on making the application, give to the Ministers an address in the United Kingdom as that at which any notices or other documents may be delivered to or served upon him.
11. Any application, notice or other document, given, delivered to or served upon the Ministers in accordance with these regulations may be signed, and all attendances upon the Ministers may be made, by an agent in the United Kingdom appointed so to act by an authorisation in writing which shall have been delivered to the Ministers.
12. Any document required or authorised by these regulations to be delivered to or served upon any person other than the Ministers may be delivered or served by being delivered to him personally or left at or sent by post to his last known address in the United Kingdom, at or to that of his agent or at or to the address referred to in Regulation 10.
13.—(1) The Ministers shall conduct or make arrangements for such tests and trials of a plant variety which is the subject of an application for entry in a National List as appear to them to be necessary to establish that it conforms with the requirements of Schedule 2.
(2) Any person making an application for the entry of a plant variety in a National List or for the renewal of such an entry shall—
(a) give to the Ministers such information and produce or deliver to them such documents, records and illustrations as they may from time to time require, and
(b) deliver to the Ministers such reproductive and other material of the plant variety and, in the case of a hybrid or synthetic plant variety, of any of its hereditary sources, in the quantity and of the description and quality, and packed and in such condition, as they may from time to time require and such further reproductive and other material of the plant variety or hereditary source, as the case may be, in the quantity and of the description and quality, and packed and in such condition, as they may require to replace any material already delivered as may have been damaged in transit or damaged or lost in the course of tests and trials or which is, or has in the course of tests or trials been shown to be, unhealthy or otherwise unsuitable,
being information, documents, records, illustrations and material relevant to the application and in the possession of or available to the person making the application.
(3) Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, no application shall be entertained for the entry in a National List of a variety of wheat, oats or barley, unless the applicant submits to the Ministers with the application the results of three replicated trials of that variety conducted in the United Kingdom, such results being expressed relative to named control varieties and relating to yield with the standard error of the variety mean yield for each trial, disease resistance, field characters and grain quality, and no application shall be entertained for the entry in a National List of a variety of a species of clover or of grass intended for use for fodder production being a species named in Part 1 of Schedule 1 unless the applicant submits to the Ministers with the application the results of two replicated trials of that variety conducted in the United Kingdom or a Member State, such results being expressed relative to named control varieties and relating to total seasonal yield with the standard error of the variety mean yield for each trial, and persistence under specified managements.
(4) Anything required to be given, produced or delivered in accordance with paragraph (2) of this regulation shall be so given, produced or delivered to the Ministers at such place as they shall require within 14 days of the requirement, which shall be made by the Ministers in writing, or within such longer time as the Ministers may allow and if it is not so given, produced or delivered, the application shall be deemed to have been withdrawn.
Refusal of applications for entry in a National List
14. The Ministers shall refuse an application for the entry of a plant variety in a National List if:—
(a) it appears to them that the plant variety does not conform with any of the requirements of Schedule 2; or
(b) it appears to them that the cultivation in the United Kingdom of the plant variety is likely to affect adversely the health of any persons, animals or plants.
Period of Entry in a National List
15.—(1) Subject to paragraph (2) of this regulation...
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