New UK pesticide plan addresses amenity sector

The UK and devolved governments have published their long-awaited National Action Plan (NAP) on pesticides, with a focus on the farming and amenity sectors.

It opens by highlighting the important role of pesticides in supporting food production, preserving natural landscapes, and maintaining public spaces.

But the document also points to the impacts of using pesticides too much or incorrectly, including biodiversity loss, human exposure, and pesticide resistance.

The NAP sets out three objectives to help reduce the risks of pesticide use and help meet existing statutory obligations:

1.      Encourage uptake of Integrated Pest Management

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is an approach to plant health which seeks to balance the use of pesticides with other, often preventative methods.

IPM is a well-known approach in the farming sector, with a range of measures available to complement pesticides, but its place in the amenity sector is less clear.

The NAP features a case study from Cambridge City Council, where a trial of specialised street-cleaning equipment and foam treatments led to fewer herbicide applications being needed.

Elsewhere, a survey of local authorities in Scotland found that the most common non-chemical measures used included mechanical control (strimming, mowing, weed brushing, and ripping), hand weeding, and supressing weed growth with mulches.

Many BALI members will already be offering these services to clients and it looks like the demand may only grow in the future.

The UK and devolved governments say that they want to remove barriers to IPM uptake in the amenity sector and point to the important role of training and certification.

Membership of assurance schemes like The Amenity Standard and BASIS Amenity Assured is one way of ensuring the latest and best practices are followed.

The NAP also sets out an action around gathering more data on IPM and pesticide usage in the amenity and amateur sectors to better understand the state of play.

2.      Set clear targets and measures to monitor use of pesticides

The UK is already committed to an international target around pesticides and regularly monitors usage but the NAP seeks to strengthen these measures.

Building on an international target to reduce the risks from pesticides by half by 2030, the document introduces a domestic target to reduce a range of specific risks from pesticides by 10% by 2030.

The domestic target covers 20 specific risks or metrics, mostly related to the potential farm of the pesticide to non-target organisms but also its behaviour in the environment.

However, the new target currently only applies to the agricultural arable sector, leaving other farming sectors, the amenity sector, and amateur use out of scope.

The NAP says that the authorities do not currently have robust data on pesticide use in the amenity and amateur sectors but they will consider how to secure it to inform any further action.

Data on pesticide use in the amenity sector is collected through an official survey but only every four years as opposed to every two years for most farming sectors.

Despite its omission from the new target, BALI recognises that the amenity has a role to play in reducing the risks of pesticide use and will continue to work with others to drive and evidence further improvements.

3.      Strengthen compliance to ensure safety and better environmental outcomes

There are multiple sets of regulations in place to reduce the risks from selling and using pesticides, from the Plant Protection Products Regulations 2011 to the Plant Protection Products (Sustainable Use) Regulations 2012.

However, the UK and devolved governments think there is a need to improve compliance across all sectors, with the NAP setting out an aim to support awareness and understanding of the various legal requirements.

One way of achieving this will be updating the Codes of Practice for using pesticides in each of the UK nations – these documents set out practical advice for achieving compliance in all sectors, including amenity.

In addition, the governments will use evidence from enforcement activity, combined with wider intelligence gathering, to help develop a targeted approach to future inspections.

The NAP also commits officials to reviewing how membership of assurance schemes, such as The Amenity Standard and BASIS Amenity Assured, might be used to better target inspections.