The Ready to Plant (RtP) assessment provides an opportunity for a supplier to demonstrate that a consignment of plants complies with the requirements of the Plant Health Management Standard (PHMS).
There are two parts to Ready to Plant:
Suppliers will need to complete the RtP Assessment Application Form. There is a comprehensive Guidance Note to accompany this form. There is also a short (10 minute) video on completing the Application Form to support the Guidance Note. Click here to watch the guidance video.
The RtP application form is broken down into four steps:
Steps 1 and 2 are a general description of how suppliers meet the plant health management standard requirements.
Steps 3 and 4 are specific to the consignment being supplied.
The Biosecurity Checkpoints Assessment (step 2) is divided into four areas:
Within these four clusters there are ‘Biosecurity Checkpoints’ that link back to the Plant Health Management Standard.
For each Biosecurity Checkpoint there is a description in the guidance notes of the assessment criterion (describing the type of procedures), rationale (explanation of why this information is needed) and guidance on evidence sought (description of the type and range of information required).
The applicant will provide a description of the procedures in place (typically 50 to 150 words, maximum 200 words) for each Biosecurity Checkpoint.
Once the RtP application has been completed by the supplier it will be submitted to Fera Science Ltd for review. The application will be evaluated by a primary assessor to check that the evidence provided meets the criteria. This will then be ratified by a secondary assessor. The supplier will be informed that they have either passed or failed. In the case of the latter, comments will be provided where additional information is required to allow the supplier to resubmit a final time with further evidence. If successful, Fera will then issue the RtP Assessment Voucher (with a unique reference number) for the supplier to provide to the purchaser of the plants as evidence of compliance with the PHMS.
Post-planting inspection of a risk-based selection of successful applications will be completed by the Animal and Plant Health Agency’s Plant Health and Seeds Inspectorate. Landowners or agents working on behalf of landowners, will be contacted separately to arrange an inspection at the planting location at an appropriate date. This is likely to be one or two growing seasons after planting.
In this pilot phase, it is expected costs will be 15% of the consignment value, which must be paid by suppliers at the point of application. This will be a one-off fee and cover the costs of the RtP Assessment and post-planting inspection. Costs will be capped at a maximum of £2000. Ready to Plant is being managed by Fera Science Ltd using their standard Terms and Conditions.