Plant Protection Products (Basic Conditions) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997

Release of information to the public

9.—(1) The Department may, at the request of any person, at such reasonable time and place as it may determine, make any evaluation held by it available to that person for inspection.

(2) The Department may, at the request of any person, supply that person with a copy of any evaluation held by it on payment of such fee (which may not exceed the cost reasonably attributable to the supply) as the Department, with the consent of the Department of Finance and Personnel, may determine.

(3) The Department may, at the request of any person to whom an evaluation has been made available for inspection under paragraph (1) or to whom a copy of an evaluation has been supplied under paragraph (2), make available at such reasonable time and place as it may determine for inspection by that person any study reports held by it to which the evaluation relates.

(4) A person to whom any information or document has been made available for inspection under paragraph (1) or (3), or to whom a copy of any information or document has been furnished under paragraph (2), shall not make any commercial use of it nor, unless authorised in writing by the Department to do so, publish any part of it.

(5) In this regulation—

“approval” means any approval given under regulation 5 or 6(2)(a);

“commercial use”, in relation to any information or document, includes the use of that information or document in any manner whatsoever in connection with the manufacture, distribution, importation, advertisement, sale, supply, storage, use or export of any plant protection product but does not include the use of that information or document for the purpose of books, journals or other publications with the written authorisation of the Department;

“evaluation” means a written evaluation of study reports or other data examined in the course of an appraisal of the active substance of a plant protection product leading to the giving of an approval, the amendment of any conditions imposed in relation to an approval, or the revocation of an approval, of that prescribed plant protection product;

“study reports” means study reports and any other data relating to an application for an approval or the continuance of an approval including the amendment of the conditions imposed in relation to an approval.

(6) This regulation is without prejudice to the provisions of the Environmental Information Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1993(1).

(1)

S.R. 1993 No. 45, which implements in Northern Ireland Council Directive 90/313/EEC on the freedom of access to information on the environment (OJ No. L158, 23.6.90, p. 56); these Regulations provide for a general right of disclosure of information relating to the environment which is held by (inter alia) Government Departments (other than information capable of being treated as confidential) and specify certain requirements which must be observed in responding to requests for disclosure of such information