GM Foods: Watchdog's silence on the guilty broke law
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Your support makes all the difference.THE OFFICIAL watchdog on genetically modified crops has broken the law by refusing to name companies that have flouted safety rules in growing them, or even to give full details of how often such breaches have taken place, writes Geoffrey Lean.
The Health and Safety Executive, which inspects trial plantings of the crops to make sure the rules are being observed, said that it would not identify the companies because doing so might "unreasonably disadvantage them". It has now admitted that it acted illegally in trying to keep the information secret.
The revelation is likely to cause an outcry following the recent conviction of the controversial US giant Monsanto and Perry Fields Ltd for breaking the rules at a trial site near Caister, Lincolnshire. Monsanto was fined pounds 17,000 and Perry Fields pounds 14,000 in the first case of its kind.
The HSE's secrecy undermines constant assurances from ministers about the strictness and openness of the regulatory authorities on GM crops in Britain.
The HSE's refusal came when Friends of the Earth formally asked it, under the Environmental Information Regulation 1992, to say how often the rules had been broken and to identify the companies and sites involved. More than 400 sites across the country have been planted with GM crops on a trial basis under the regulations, which are designed to stop the genes contaminating nearby crops.
The HSE refused to say how many breaches had occurred on the grounds that "provision of this information would require unreasonable diversion of resources". But it did admit that the rules had been broken at one- tenth of the 49 sites visited by inspectors between April and September last year.
The HSE has now admitted that it was illegal to withhold the information. The agency has apologised to Friends of the Earth and promised to supply it.
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