For the laboratories already complying with the human pathogens importation regulations, I would say we think almost all the group threes and of course the risk group four lab already do that. The clear messages to us are concerns around risk group two.
For risk group two, we have laid out a proposed regulatory and program framework that says we do not intend to require security clearance. We intend for people to keep inventories simple, so they can be produced if we need them to. Inspections are not going to be every year; they're going to be as needed and spot checks as required. All those program designs and the regulatory intent was there to minimize the impact.
We have a level two lab within the Public Health Agency. Some of the ways we were trying to look at impact were in fact to ask them directly. So we asked, “Upon royal assent, what would be the impact on your lab?”, and they said, “Very minimal. All we need to do is make sure we provide a contact person, a name, and whether we have any prohibited organisms.” Then, really, it's in the program design. Regarding the cost, we've done some ballparking, but that cannot be done in detail—and we have accountants trying to work this through—until the program design is done in detail, and that requires the stakeholder input.
We're in a circulatory design mode right now whereby we want to reduce impact; we don't want to lay it down in stone. At the same time, then, you can't have the exact cost, but I could safely say for risk group two we are trying to minimize the impact.
