This part of the review is only applicable to invertebrate or plant pathogen authorisation holders.
What requires an authorisation?
You must have a scientific authorisation to import, move or keep invertebrate plant pests or plant pathogens which meet any one of the following conditions:
- They are Great Britain (GB) quarantine pests listed in Annex 2 of the GB Phytosanitary Conditions Regulation 2019/2072
- They are GB provisional quarantine pests (PQPs) listed in Annex 2A of the GB Phytosanitary Conditions Regulation 2019/2072
- They are Pest Free Area quarantine pests for GB listed in Annex 3 of the GB Phytosanitary Conditions Regulation 2019/2072
- Unlisted species which have been assessed to be a GB potential quarantine pest by Defra.
You do not need a scientific authorisation to import, move or keep invertebrate plant pests or plant pathogens which meet any one of the following conditions:
- They are a Regulated Non-Quarantine Pest (RNQP) listed in Annex 4 of the GB Phytosanitary Conditions Regulation 2019/2072; or
- Unlisted species that do not meet the criteria of a GB potential quarantine pest following an assessment by Defra.
Reviewing pests held under scientific authorisation
The first step in this process will be to remove pests from authorisations which are RNQPs or have been deregulated. This will be able to be carried out swiftly as a new risk assessment is not required. When this stage of the review is complete, those affected by this removal will receive an updated copy of their authorisation and LoA.
In the second part of this review, we will be assessing whether the pests that remain on your authorisation and which are not listed in the the GB Phytosanitary Conditions Regulation 2019/2072 meet the criteria to be a GB potential quarantine pest. This will be a longer process as individual risk assessments will need to be completed.
Under this legislation, the listing of genera in the majority of cases is no longer permitted and non-GB variants of pest species present in GB must pose a greater risk than those already present to require an authorisation, so we will ask questions relevant to these two points.
The majority of the review of pests has already been carried out for invertebrate authorisations and work will soon begin on pathogen authorisations.
Whilst a scientific authorisation may not be required to import, move or keep pests which are removed from your authorisation, we advise that they remain held securely and are not released or allowed to escape into the environment. Any pests removed from your authorisation will not be subject to plant health controls but may be subject to other regulations.
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