§ Mr. Dalyellasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what progress has been made in his survey of the nature and extent of the non-agricultural uses of pesticides; and what consideration has been given in the survey to the need to supervise these uses more closely.
§ Mr. Denis HowellAt the request of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution and the Advisory Committee on Pesticides and Other Toxic Chemicals my Department's Central Unit on Environmental Pollution has undertaken a survey of the nature and extent of non-agricultural uses of pesticides in Great Britain and the possible need for controls. The results are contained in a report "The Non-Agricultural Uses of Pesticides in Great Britain" which is published today. A copy has been placed in the Library. The report shows that there is no widespread abuse of pesticides in non-agricultural situations, but recommends none the less that these uses should be more closely supervised both to ensure that any significant hazard to human health or to the environment is prevented and to provide a readily identifiable source of advice on the safe use of pesticides in these situations.
The Government accept these recommendations and will be consulting interested organisations on the arrangements for implementing them. All pesticides used in the home or by local or central Government, or for wood preserving by servicing companies, will in future be subject to the same kind of supervision as pesticides used in agriculture, food storage and related areas 247W which are already covered by the Pesticides safety precautions scheme. Using the expert advice of the Advisory Committee on Pesticides and other Toxic Chemicals, the relevant Government Departments in consultation with the industries concerned, will review the industrial uses of pesticides which do not lend themselves to supervision under the existing scheme, in order to determine the most appropriate action in each case.