<< back

Wildlife management articles for pest controllers

02 October 2017

Whistleblower process introduced for rodenticide point-of-sale breaches by CRRU

The Campaign for Responsible Rodenticide Use (CRRU) has produced a reporting process for anyone that suspects a breach of the UK Rodenticide Stewardship Regime point-of-sale checks. 

Think Wildlife logo 500

Under the scheme, pest controllers, farmer and gamekeepers should all be checked equally at the point of purchase. 

Retail and trade distributors working on a premises or over the internet require the buyers of professional use rodenticides to provide either:

  • an approved certificate of competence or
  • a document confirming their membership of an approved farm assurance scheme 

If neither of these documents can be produced the seller is forbidden to supply the professional use products. 

BPCA have commented on the implementation of the procedure saying:

This is a great addition to the stewardship regime. We all urge you to report any non-compliance that you come across as soon as possible, only together can we ensure the scheme is a success.

Dee Ward Thompson, BPCA Technical Manager

What happens if you're reported

Rodenticide product authorisation holders have committed to investigate allegations of non-compliance and then report their findings to CRRU UK. 

A record of the investigations and the outcomes will be included in the regime's annual report to the HSE-led Government Oversight Group. 

If you're found to be breaching point-of-sale rules, the authorisation holders have a range of sanctions available to them.  

This can include:

  • Re-training on all aspects of the rodenticide scheme
  • Being reported to Trading Standards and CRD Compliance
  • The withdrawal of supply from non-compliant outlet

Reporting non-compliance at the point-of-sale

You can find the reporting process on the CRRU website.

All you need to do is fill out the online form, which has space for supporting documents.

This method of reporting non-compliance is strictly for point-of-sale breaches only.

For incidents of bad practice in rodenticide use, or the poisoning of non-target species, you should be reporting directly to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) or the Wildlife Incident Investigation Service (0800 321 600). 

Back to news