Around 13,000 users of professional-use-only rat baits have undergone training and been awarded approved certification since the UK Rodenticide Stewardship Regime was introduced in 2016.
This has taken the proportion of stewardship-certified gamekeepers, for example, from 37% in 2015 to 60% in 2017. The proportion of professional pest controllers covered has increased from 96% to 98%.
There are now more than 97,000 members of stewardship-approved farm assurance schemes, including 88% of pig production. In addition, 23% of farmers have been trained and gained stewardship-certification, an increase from 19% in 2015.
These are highlights from the second annual UK Rodenticide Stewardship report, published by the Campaign for Responsible Rodenticide Use UK under its remit to an HSE-led Government Oversight Group.
The report outlines progress and results in 2017 of the regime’s six stewardship work groups: Best Practice, Training & Certification, Point of Sale, Monitoring, Regulatory, and Communication.
CRRU UK chairman Dr Alan Buckle said: “There are promising early signs of things going in the right direction, but much remains to be done.”
Priorities for 2018 include independent audits of point of sale controls and a review of burrow baiting with new best practice guidelines; widespread use of a streamlined Environmental Risk Assessment checklist before rodenticide baiting and the next round of stewardship’s monitoring procedures.
The report is available at thinkwildlife.org/downloads.