To ask Her Majesty's Government why a warrant issued under Regulation 7(5) of the Marketing of Fresh Horticultural Produce Regulations 2009 (SI 2009/1361) is valid for three months; and whether that time-frame for the validity of a warrant will become the norm (a) in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, or (b) in all government departments. [HL5942]

The issue of warrants with a three-month time limit for execution is already standard across government (see for example Section 8 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (as amended)). Therefore, for reasons of consistency of legislation, and after consultation with the Home Office, the period of validity for warrants issued under Regulation 7(4) of the Marketing of Fresh Horticultural Produce Regulations 2009 (SI 2009/1361) was fixed at three months. In practice, however, the great majority of warrants will be executed shortly after their issue, although there may be operational reasons in certain circumstances why this is not possible.

To ask Her Majesty's Government with reference to Regulation 9(2)(a)(iv) of the Marketing of Fresh Horticultural Produce Regulations 2009 (SI 2009/1361), why the logotype of the Rural Payments Agency would be used on a regraded label applied to horticultural produce that has been judged to break European Union marketing rules. [HL5944]

All the enforcement labels included in SI 2009/1361 contain both the logotype of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the logotype of the Rural Payments Agency (RPA). The RPA logotype is included because it is the Horticultural Marketing Inspectorate of the RPA which enforces the marketing standards in England. The enforcement labels assist in quickly identifying the breach identified to all concerned. In the case of the regraded label, they indicate to the holder of the produce that the labels on the produce containing the class information required by the marketing standards need to be corrected. Once this has been done, the regraded enforcement labels can be removed.