Do you need to register work involving pesticides?

[<<] [>>] by James Death [CA Admin]
22nd July 2022 (Other News)

Following confirmation from Defra, all clubs were notified about their requirements to register in relation to using pesticides. Below is the letter sent to all clubs:

Use of plant protection products (pesticides) at croquet clubs.

Regulations came into force on 22nd June 2022 requiring users of plant protections products, PPP, usually known as pesticides, to register.

The CA has queried whether volunteers are required to register and if so whether so-called domestic products used on croquet lawns fell within the remit of this new requirement. We have finally received a definitive response today (21st July) from the OCR-PPP Team at Defra's Pesticides Hub as follows:

"Sports clubs, that are non-profit or volunteer-run, using professional plant protection products are required to register under the official controls regulations. Acting on behalf of the club, although not employment in the traditional sense, is applying the PPP on behalf of the club, and is therefore
classed as being part of their job.

If your volunteers are using any plant protection products, they do therefore need to register, this includes whether they are using professional products (in which case they must be appropriately trained in doing so) or ready-to-use products such as those available in supermarkets and garden centres.

If the lawns are on private property, there is no need to register."

If you have a professional groundsman then he/she should be registered and trained to use the products and you do not need to do anything. Similarly, if your club is on private property you also do not need to do anything, although you may wish to consider the insurance implications if an accident were to occur and your personnel were not registered or trained.

For everyone else using these products at your croquet club, you should register. In order to register you should go to Register work involving pesticides - HSE. You have three months in which to do it.

Further information on the use, storage and disposal of PPPs can be found at Using, Storing
and Disposing of Plant Protection Products (hse.gov.uk)