Registering Ayrshire Early New Potatoes/Ayrshire Earlies under the EU Protected Food Name (PFN) Scheme: consultation

Responding to the Consultation

The purpose of this consultation is to notify interested parties of the application and to provide an opportunity to object, if appropriate, or comment on the application.

This consultation commences on 13 May 2016 and closes on 05 August 2016. This constitutes a period of 12 weeks, and fulfils the Scottish Government commitment to provide all interested parties with this minimum period to respond to any consultation exercise.

If you wish to respond to this consultation exercise, we would be grateful if you could let us know your intention to do so no later than 10 June 2016 by writing to:

Protected_Food_Names@gov.scot or

You will then have until the closing date to submit your comments or objection in full. This can be submitted by writing to the contact details above or by using the online survey facility hosted by Citizen Space. We recommend that you fully consider this consultation document before sitting down to complete the online survey.

Please note that any objections to the application will need to specify the grounds on which it is based. For guidance on what constitutes an admissible objection as laid down in Article 10 of the Council Regulation ( EU) No 1151/2012 please go to http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/txt/pdf/?uri=celex:32012r1151&from=en

Handling your response

We need to know how you wish your response to be handled and, in particular, whether you are happy for your response to be made public. Please ensure you complete, and where appropriate return, the Respondent Information Form with responses as this will ensure that we treat your response appropriately. If you ask for your response not to be published we will regard it as confidential, and we will treat it accordingly.

All respondents should be aware that the Scottish Government are subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and would therefore have to consider any request made to it under the Act for information relating to responses made to this consultation exercise.

What happens next

Where respondents have given permission for their response to be made public and after we have checked that they contain no potentially defamatory material, responses will be made available to the public on the Scottish Government consultation web pages. Responses can be copied and sent to you, but a charge may be made for this service.

Following the closing date, all responses will be analysed and considered along with any other available evidence to help us reach a decision on the final specification to be registered as a PGI. All documentation is then passed to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs ( DEFRA), the competent authority in the UK, for onward processing for the EU.

Comments and complaints

If you have any queries or comments regarding this consultation exercise, please write to us using the contact details above or phone 0131 244 4806.