Applying to import into containment

Pre-application consultation

Consultation is the continuous dialogue that takes place between an applicant and those interested in the application. The consultation process is discussed more fully on the next page, and the section entitled Background information on biological control safety, and more information can be found in the links listed below.

Given that approved containment facilities and their operating practices are licensed for containment, and are routinely audited, escape from such facilities can be considered 'highly improbable'. If this is so, the likelihood of exposure of the environment to possible adverse effects of the biological control agent is also highly improbable, and the overall risk is likely to be low, (except for organisms known to be potentially dangerous, but biological control agents already selected for high host-specificity are unlikely to fall into this category). The level of consultation before a containment application is prepared should be set by the need to discuss the characteristics of that low risk - the containment facility itself and its operating practices and how these relate to biological control agent biology. In practice, the acceptable level of community consultation for an import into containment application is low compared to that required for a release application (see following sections).