To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment his Department has made of the long-term stability of the variety of the GM blight resistant potato approved for field trials. (118579)

On the basis of advice from its Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment (ACRE), DEFRA has not required BASF, the applicant for the trials, to provide data on the long-term stability of these lines of GM blight resistant potato. This is because the stability of the GM potatoes does not pose any identifiable risk to the environment within the context of this research trial.