Fees for seed testing, seed certification and associated seed functions: consultation

Part I - About this Consultation

Responding to the Consultation Paper

We are inviting responses to this consultation by 8 May 2018. Please respond to this consultation online at: https://consult.gov.scot/agriculture-and-rural-communities/seed-testing;

Please ensure that consultation responses are submitted before the closing date.

Respondent Information Form (see 'Handling your Response' below) and send it with your written response to:

or E-mail it to - Seeds&NationalListing@gov.scot;

Handling your response

If you respond using Citizen Space, you will be automatically directed to the Respondent Information Form at the end of this consultation. This will let us know how you wish your response to be handled and, in particular, whether you are happy for your response to be made public.

Please complete and return the Respondent Information Form, as this will ensure that we treat your response appropriately. If you ask for your response not to be published, we will regard it as confidential and will treat it accordingly.

All respondents should be aware that the Scottish Government is subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and would therefore have to consider any request made to it under the said Act for information relating to responses made to this consultation exercise.

Next steps in the process

After the consultation has closed, we will analyse the responses received and these will inform the decision making process for how the Plant Health, Horticulture, Seeds and Potato Policy Branch will form their policy. Where respondents have given permission for their response to be made public, we will publish an analysis of them along with a scanned copy of the response(s).

Purpose of Consultation

Scottish Government have reviewed the fees for seed testing, seed certification and associated seed functions. The findings have been documented in this consultation paper, and the proposed changes to fees inserted into the relevant schedules and BRIA.

The purpose of this consultation is to seek comments from individuals / companies on the proposal to increase all certification and associated fees by CPI 3.0% ^[1] with the exception of seed testing fees, which we propose to increase by 8%. A 5% reduction is being provided for those applications submitted through MySEEDS. The change of fees is proposed to come into force on 1 July 2018.

Scottish Government consultation process

Consultation is an essential part of the policy-making process. It gives us the opportunity to consider your opinion and expertise on an area of work that we consider of interest to you.

You can find all our consultations online http://consult.gov.scot; Each consultation details the issues under consideration, as well as a way for you to give us your views, either online, by email or by post.

Responses will be analysed and used as part of the decision making process, along with a range of other available information and evidence. We will publish a report of this analysis on the Scottish Government Website. Depending on the nature of the consultation exercise the responses received may:

• indicate the need for policy development or review;
• inform the development of a particular policy;
• help decisions to be made between alternative policy proposals;
• be used to finalise legislation before it is implemented

While details of particular circumstances described in a response to a consultation exercise may usefully inform the policy process, consultation exercises cannot address individual concerns and comments, which should be directed to the relevant public body.

Duration of Consultation

• This consultation started 13 February 2018
• This consultation closes on 8 May 2018
• A consultation period of 12 weeks applies

How to make an enquiry

If you have any queries relating to this consultation please e-mail Graham Hall at Seeds&NationalListing@gov.scot; or call on 0300 244 5984.

A Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment ( BRIA)

A BRIA has been attached at Annex D , providing some detail as too what the expected costs may be for the certification of a cereal and / or a non-cereal seed lot after the 1 July 2018.