Users of Professional Plant Protection Products reminded to register with Defra

Users of Professional Plant Protection Products (PPPs) and adjuvants in England, Wales and Scotland are required to register with Defra.  This registration can be made as a business, organisation or sole trader, and requires completion and submission of a spreadsheet to Defra.

Together with users in England, Defra are also responsible for collecting registration information on behalf of Scottish and Welsh Governments. 

User categories

Users are required to register if they:

• use professional PPPs and any adjuvants as part of their work
• have professional PPPs and any adjuvants applied by a third party (e.g. sub-contractor) as part of their work in agriculture, horticulture, amenity or forestry 

BALI members are likely to fit into horticulture, amenity or forestry sectors. These are defined as follows:

Agriculture and horticulture

This includes work in agriculture or horticulture such as farming or maintaining arable crops, forage crops or livestock, or treating seeds.

Amenity
This includes work in gardening, landscaping, grounds maintenance, or another role in an amenity setting such as in:

• schools
• parks
• sports grounds, including golf courses
• public or private property
• infrastructure, such as roads, railways and waterways
• utilities, such as transport and water firms

Forestry

This includes work in forests or woodlands, such as:

• tree management
• tree planting
• use of forests or woodland

Registration

Defra require businesses to register every address where they:

• store Professional Plant Protection Products*
• keep records of Professional Plant Protection Products*
• apply Professional Plant Protection Products, providing these are applied on users’ own business property (such as land they own or rent) only.  Users are not required to disclose client addresses where they apply PPP on behalf of clients.

  *  It is necessary for users to enter all addresses that apply.  For example, if users store PPPs and any adjuvants at 2 addresses, and keep records at a separate office, they must provide the details of all 3.  It does not matter that some addresses will be registered twice, by both a landowner and their tenant, for example.

Temporary addresses
Users must register at least one permanent business address. Users do not need to register temporary addresses, for example addresses users will only use for up to 2 years.

Use of PPPs

A question on the registration form asks users to advise Defra of the amount of PPP used, stored or applied in a typical year.  In relation to this question, Defra advise users to enter the amount they use, store or apply in a typical year, and that an estimate is acceptable. 

Defra also advise users who use PPPs during some years but not others, to provide the typical amount they would use during a year that they do. 

It is not necessary for users of amateur PPPs, such as those used in a domestic garden, to register their use. 

Further instruction on the process and a link to download the relevant form can be found in the Further Reading section, below. 

Further reading

Defra webpage: Register as a user of Professional Plant Protection Products

Link to download form to register as a user of Professional Plant Protection Products