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BPCA’s lobbying work continues. Stay up-to-date with all things pest in the UK parliament and devolved administrations. PPC helps keep you firmly in the loop.

▶ Glue boards in Wales and implications for the rest of the UK

In November, BPCA’s Chief Executive Ian Andrew represented the pest control industry in the fight for glue board use at a Welsh Parliament Select Committee. Unfortunately, much of BPCA evidence was dismissed out of hand at the committee stage report, despite support from UK Hospitality.

The report stated that:

• Local authorities in Wales do not use glue boards
• Rentokil has a “self imposed” ban on glue boards and can still “capture problem rodents in all circumstances”
• Defra is having difficulties implementing a licensing scheme for pest professionals (in England), “most notably with the fact there is no Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) Code for pest controllers and no qualifications or licence is needed to work in that type of role. Therefore, determining a legitimate application for a licence to use a glue trap would prove very problematic, rendering the definition of who is exempt in the regulations very difficult”.

The report concluded: “Having considered the Minister’s letter alongside other evidence received, the Committee does not object to the proposals in the Bill on prohibiting the use of glue traps.

“...The Committee supports the provisions in Part 5 of the Bill to prohibit the use of glue traps.”

BPCA's glue board campaign in Wales hits the national press. The Express writes: “Mark Drakeford has been accused of placing the welfare of rodents above that of the people in Wales, with a plan to ban glue boards for catching mice and rats.”

Lessons learned

We’re very disappointed with the report’s findings. BPCA will continue to campaign for a licensing scheme.

However, we are concerned about how much more influence we can have. We’ve struggled to get pest control end-users to support our defence of glue boards, with all but UK Hospitality staying silent.

Local authorities and a single pest management company provided evidence contrary to ours when the sector needed to show a united front (despite BPCA and NPTA representing all our members collectively).

And, of course, the issue of licensing rears its head again. How much easier could this all have been if pest professionals were licensed to practice rather than our toolkit managed piecemeal?

We are concerned that Wales will be the domino that topples the stack. Scotland may follow Wales’s lead. Once Scotland and Wales have broadly aligned rules, it’ll likely make Defra reconsider how viable a licensing scheme is in England.

We’ll continue to advocate for continued access to glue boards for professionals. However, this process will be a hard lesson for our sector.

▶ Reform of public procurement processes

BPCA has submitted evidence on the Procurement Bill to make public tenders more accessible to SMEs. Our recommendations included:

• Scrap tenders by lots – instead, split large tenders into small, meaningful opportunities
• Introduce a threshold of SME involvement in service provision, forcing those successful in winning bids to subcontract to SMEs
• Streamline, standardise, and, where possible, simplify the pre-tender requirements across the public sector
• Allow intelligent and logical changes to contract terms, such as reducing the professional indemnity insurance requirement to match the actual need 
• Redesign what quality might mean, and allow small contractors some latitude or exemptions to allow them to compete against large, multi-nationals for
  suitable contracts
• Include a schedule of documents issued with the tender so a document is not hidden within another document’s pages or a page on the portal
• Remove contract rebates returnable to
  the client
• Include a schedule of documents or evidence to be returned, so the contractor can mark these off as they are completed
• Make pricing schedules simple to understand.

WRITE TO YOUR MP

If your business operates in Wales and you'd like to write to your MP about the ban, get in touch and we can guide you through the process. 

hello@bpca.org.uk