What do commercial landscape contractors need to do?
1. Register as a professional operator
Any landscape business professionally involved in, and therefore legally responsible for one or more of the following activities concerning plants or plant products must register as a professional operator:
- Planting
- Breeding
- Production, including growing, multiplying and maintaining
- Introduction into, and movement within and out of, the Union territory
- Making available on the market
- Storage, collection dispatching and processing
Q: Who must I register as a professional operator with?
A: You must register with the appropriate competent authority:
England Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA)
Scotland Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA)
Northern Ireland Department of Agriculture Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA)
2. Record plant passports you receive from authorised operators* together with details of the authorised operator (name and address) who sold you the plants. You need to record this information (physically or digitally) for 3 years.
The minimum information which must be recorded from the plant passport(s) supplied is Part A (the botanical name(s) of the plant(s) species concerned) and Part B (the supplying operator's registration number). Click here to see where Part A and Part B may be found on a plant passport. The information contained with Part A and Part B is required for each trade unit (see glossary for definition of trade unit) of passported plants received.
Although not required, recording the dates each trade unit was received, together with the client they were supplied to, will ensure good accuracy in the event of any issues in the future.
* Authorised operators are businesses authorised to issue plant passports, and may include nurseries, wholesalers or other commercial landscape contractors. Note: Authorised operators are distinct from professional operators.
3. Review your client list and operations; you may be required to issue plant passports
If you undertake all landscape works for your client, from movement of plants through to planting, you do not need to issue plant passports but do need to be registered as a professional operator.
If your client undertakes some landscape works (such as planting or moving plants) they should be registered as a professional operator and you need to be authorised to issue plant passports to them.
Q: Where do I apply to become authorised to issue plant passports?
A: England click here
Scotland click here
Northern Ireland click here
4. Subject to the considerations in point 3 above, attach plant passports to consignments destined for commercial client sites
If material is travelling from one premises to one single site to be planted, each van or trailer load containing planting material can be covered by a single plant passport.
It is perfectly acceptable to email a client with plant passport details, as long as this is in addition to attaching a plant passport to consignments. Any operator who issues plant passports must record who originally supplied them with the plants, as well as any plant passports they have issued and who they supplied these to (this storage can be physical or digital).
4a. Issue and attach a plant passport where planting material is being moved between premises >10 miles apart.
To maintain traceability of planting material, plant passports must be issued and attached to consignments transported a distance of more than 10 miles between sites owned by the same operator.