HL Deb 01 April 1993 vol 544 cc1010-1

11.28 a.m.

Lord Ashley of Stoke asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they will institute a legal requirement to report accidental misuse of pesticides.

The Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Earl Howe)

My Lords, where misuse of pesticides is genuinely accidental, those responsible are unlikely to be aware that they have committed an offence. In these circumstances I am not convinced that it would serve any useful purpose to make reporting such incidents a legal requirement.

Lord Ashley of Stoke

My Lords, that reply is incredible. Does the Minister recall that when responding recently to concern about the use of pesticides the Government said that the people who are employed to use them must be fully trained and competent? The Minister now says something very different. He says that they are unlikely to be aware that they are committing an offence. The Government cannot have it both ways. Either these people are fully trained and would be aware that they are committing an offence, or they are not. Does the Minister agree that because the accidental misuse of pesticides can cause enormous damage to people it should be a legal requirement to report such incidents?

Earl Howe

My Lords, I do not believe that there is any contradiction at all between the statements to which the noble Lord alludes. The misuse of pesticides, whether accidental or otherwise, is an offence under the Food and Environment Protection Act 1985. At the same time, all users of pesticides must be competent when using them. In practice, we find that incidents of suspected poisoning by pesticides are reported very often by third parties. Every one of those reports is followed up by the Health and Safety Executive. The noble Lord may be interested to know that the HSE proposes to publish a free leaflet aimed at the general public to encourage reporting of incidents involving pesticides or veterinary medicines. The draft leaflet is presently the subject of wide consultation and should be available by early summer.

Lord Clinton-Davis

My Lords, will the Government accept that there is something in what my noble friend argued, in the sense that it is extremely important not only to record penalties but also to act to ensure that people are deterred from doing something in relation to pesticides which is dangerous to health? Does he agree that just as accidents have to be reported in factories, accidents in relation to pesticides should also be reported?

Earl Howe

My Lords, where accidents are known about, they are already subject to compulsory reporting under the Health and Safety at Work Act. But that is rather different from incidents of misuse, many of which may not be known of at all. The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1985 (known as RIDDOR) require employers, the self-employed and people in control of premises to report to the relevant enforcing authority certain injuries, cases of ill health and dangerous occurrences which happen in the course of work or as a result of work.

The Countess of Mar

My Lords, can the Minister confirm that two difficulties would arise if such accidents have to be reported? The first concerns the degree of accident. Does he agree that, for example, one can spill a teaspoonful of pesticide or one can spread gallons of it all over an inappropriate place? The second difficulty is that many farmers are self-employed and work on their own. Does he accept that they may be frightened of being prosecuted if they report an accident which possibly only affects themselves?

Earl Howe

My Lords, the noble Countess raises two interesting points. One of the main disadvantages of instituting a compulsory system of reporting, apart from those I have mentioned, is that the monitoring which is carried out by the Pesticide Usage Survey Group under its rolling programme depends for its effectiveness on voluntary co-operation without fear on the part of the farmer that the surveyor is also an enforcement officer. It is important that the information gained from those surveys should be comprehensive and accurate. That is why I believe that the suggestion of the noble Lord, Lord Ashley, would be self-defeating.