EU Plant Passport Scheme

[Chris L]

I assume that these plant passports have to go in the parcel of plants being sent to the buyer. Is that correct?

Would the seller need to keep a copy of the same information?

What does the buyer do with the passport information? If I got a lot of scraps of paper in a parcel containing plants it would all go straight in the recycling bin (the paper that is, not the plants).

[Bill]

In the EU Directive which indeed Bill linked to:
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content ... 32016R2031,
throughout the whole document, it repeatedly uses the phrase professional operators. I have trouble parsing clause (27), but it does seem to say non-professionals are not subject to these rules. Maybe someone else can make more sense of that clause than I can.
(While the rest of the document has nothing to say about non-professional selling or moving of plants, iIt does say anyone discovering certain pests needs to report them).

Later it says
‘professional operator’ means any person, governed by public or private law, involved professionally in, and legally responsible for, one or more of the following activities ...
I'm not sure how the EU defines professional, but my understanding of a professional is someone who makes a living doing something, or at least a substantial part of their income. I cannot see how someone selling an odd spare plant on an auction site could be regarded as a professional.

I'm still waiting to get a response to my request for a link to the UK legislation (which may be stricter than the EU Directive, of course, which sets a minimum requirement for legislation in each country).

Yes that is was my initially reading but it kept coming up in various discussions that the distance selling rules would apply to all sellers which lead me to do further investigation. APHA are the UK Enforcement Agency and they say the rules on distance selling (which I have yet to find in the regulations) apply to ALL sellers and this is the same advice various people have had in other plant type groups I belong to.

[Bill]

I assume that these plant passports have to go in the parcel of plants being sent to the buyer. Is that correct?

Would the seller need to keep a copy of the same information?

What does the buyer do with the passport information? If I got a lot of scraps of paper in a parcel containing plants it would all go straight in the recycling bin (the paper that is, not the plants).

That is a good question, I think I would tend to bin it too.

[ralphrmartin]

Yes that is was my initially reading but it kept coming up in various discussions that the distance selling rules would apply to all sellers which lead me to do further investigation. APHA are the UK Enforcement Agency and they say the rules on distance selling (which I have yet to find in the regulations) apply to ALL sellers and this is the same advice various people have had in other plant type groups I belong to.

Fair enough.

I've just emailed APHA pointing out that the EU Directive applies to professional operators, and asking them to confirm that supplying plant passports thus does not apply to amateurs - or if it does, to point out the specific part of the UK legislation which makes that clear. Hopefully this will settle it one way or the other.

[Roatavator]

Let’s all hope common sense prevails. As a hobbyist who might sell a maximum of six spare plants a year I can’t believe such regulations were really meant to apply to people like me.

[Stuart]

I understood that Dutch nurseries were ready to put a sticker on each tray of plants sold so the grower could be traced though didn't realise it would apply to the final retail sales if not sold person to person. I thought the idea behind it was so that plants with a specific disease that could have commercial or environmental consequences could be traced back to the grower. It would make more sense for inspecting growers when a problem plant is traced back to them rather than, as suggested here, to visit every grower selling on-line no matter how small which would be a waste of taxpayers money. I'll go along with it if necessary in the same way as I've had to obtain completely pointless CITES permits for importing nursery-grown hybrid Aloes from outside the EU..
Stuart

[Bill]

Yes that is was my initially reading but it kept coming up in various discussions that the distance selling rules would apply to all sellers which lead me to do further investigation. APHA are the UK Enforcement Agency and they say the rules on distance selling (which I have yet to find in the regulations) apply to ALL sellers and this is the same advice various people have had in other plant type groups I belong to.

Fair enough.

I've just emailed APHA pointing out that the EU Directive applies to professional operators, and asking them to confirm that supplying plant passports thus does not apply to amateurs - or if it does, to point out the specific part of the UK legislation which makes that clear. Hopefully this will settle it one way or the other.

No harming in asking again but I specifically used the words amateur and hobbyist in my questions to them, rather than things like occasional seller, be interesting to see what they say.

[Stuart]

All the above would suggest that BCSS seeds listed in the December Cactus World should come with a plant passport.
Stuart

[ralphrmartin]

It would make more sense for inspecting growers when a problem plant is traced back to them rather than, as suggested here, to visit every grower selling on-line no matter how small which would be a waste of taxpayers money.

As far as I can see, it's the growers who have to pay for inspections. The fees are £61.58 for each 15 minutes (or part thereof) with a minimum fee of £123.16 - and that seems to be an annual requirement. Clearly not worthwhile for anyone selling just a few plants.

[ralphrmartin]

No harming in asking again but I specifically used the words amateur and hobbyist in my questions to them, rather than things like occasional seller, be interesting to see what they say.

HI Bill - I fully believe you reported your conversation accurately. However I suspect, or at least hope, that as this has just come in, not all APHA personnel fully understand the rules yet.

Of course, the other possibility is that the UK have gone overboard, and have made the rules much more onerous than the EU requires.

That's why I phrased my enquiry as I did - `The EU directive doesn't include amateurs so if the UK law does, please show me the evidence'.