Health and Safety
Executive / Commission
Biocides &
pesticides
Part III of the Food and Environment Protection Act 1985 (FEPA) introduced the principle of statutory controls on pesticides and provided the overall legal framework for the control of pesticides in Great Britain.
FEPA was implemented through the Control of Pesticides Regulations (COPR) 1986 (as amended 1997).
Under COPR all pesticides must gain approval before their advertisement, sale, supply, storage or use is permitted in Great Britain. Anyone who advertises, sells, supplies, stores or uses a pesticide is affected by the Regulations, including people who use them in their own home.
Approval is granted by Ministers following an application from a manufacturer, formulator, importer or distributor (or in certain circumstances a user) supported by the necessary data on safety, efficacy and, where relevant, humaneness.
Approval is normally granted only in relation to individual products and only for specified uses, and remain subject to immediate revocation, suspension or amendment at any time if safety considerations so demand.
Approval is a legal requirement and would be an offence to:
advertise, sell, supply store or use non-approved pesticides or use an approved pesticides in a manner that does not comply with the conditions of approval.
Under COPR companies submit data, such as environmental or mammalian toxicity studies, in support of a pesticide approval, and this information is used to carry out a scientific evaluation and associated risk assessment on the use of the product.
This evaluation and risk assessment may be considered by the Advisory Committee on Pesticides (ACP). This independent body of experts make recommendations based on the submitted scientific assessment, and advise Ministers on the granting of approvals.
A precedent system can also be used for product approvals. Where an application for a new approval falls within the precedent set by a previously approved product (ie where the risks have already been assessed), it may be possible for the new product to be approved using this as a precedent. For a product to follow this route, it must have the same (or lower) level of active ingredient, and the same area of use and the same application methods of the previously approved product. This means the ACP would not have to repeatedly see data that it has already scrutinised. However, these products still require the approval of Ministers.
Each product approval is granted subject to specific Conditions of Approval, which are legal requirements and must be observed. These conditions are recorded in the legal documents produced at the end of the application for approval, and are also reflected on the product label to ensure that it can be used safely with regard to both man and the environment. Following approval, products are subject to an ongoing review programme, which ensures that the data on which product approvals are based meets current safety standards.
Further information is contained in the joint publication between HSE and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)
