Risk assessment
Article 3
1. The Member States shall carry out the risk assessment of the seed suppliers and adapt the extent of their official checks accordingly to a proportion between 1 % and 100 % of seed crops as regards field inspection under official supervision. For the risk assessment of the seed suppliers, the following criteria shall be taken into account: (a) species and production methods; (b) area of production and number of fields; (c) the activities under the control of the seed supplier; (d) the location of the activities or operations; (e) any information indicating likelihood that users of seed could be misled, in particular as to the identity, health and quality, properties, composition, quantity, country or area of origin, method of production of the seeds; (f) the seed suppliers’ past record as regards the outcome of official checking and post-controls performed on their crops and compliance with the requirement set out in paragraph 2; (g) the reliability and results of inspections that have been performed by the seed suppliers, in particular by a licensed field inspector or by a third party at the request of the seed suppliers, including, where appropriate, private quality assurance schemes, for the purpose of ascertaining compliance with the requirement set out in paragraph 2; (h) any information that might indicate non-compliance with the requirement set out in paragraph 2. 2. The crop to be officially checked shall be grown from seed which has undergone official post-control in accordance with Directives 66/401/EEC, 66/402/EEC, 2002/54/EC and 2002/57/EC. 3. A proportion of samples from the seed lots harvested from the crops shall be drawn for official post-control and, where appropriate, for official laboratory seed testing in respect of varietal identity and purity. Member States shall identify, seed lots for which official checks havebeen carried out in accordance with the risk-based approach set out in paragraph 1. 4. Participating Member States shall compare, for the same crop of the same field, the fixed minimum rate of 5 % of seed crops subject to official checking with the risk-based official checking of crops and harvested seeds where no fixed minimum rate is set.