§ Mr. Ron Daviesasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what plans the Forestry Commission has for aerial spraying of pesticides as part of forestry operations in the current year.
§ Mr. John MacKay[pursuant to his reply, 18 April 1985, c. 249]: Subject to clearances under the pesticides safety precautions scheme, the Forestry Commission, together with private woodland owners, is planning to carry out in late May and early June programmes of ultra low-volume aerial spraying of insecticides on some 7,000 hectares of Lodgepole pine plantations in Sutherland, Easter Ross, Argyll and Perthshire. This spraying is to control two forest insect pests—pine beauty moth using fenitrothion and pine sawfly using virox.
The commission also intends to spray from the air about 50 hectares of land in east Scotland and 230 hectares of land in the west of England with azulam, which is a herbicide for the control of bracken and which has full
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§ Mr. John MacKayProvisional figures are contained in the following table:
commercial clearance under the pesticides safety precautions scheme. In addition, the commission will be seeking agreement to the aerial spraying with glyphosate of up to 500 hectares of land; this will be under the limited clearance which has been granted to Monsanto Limited under the pesticides safety precautions scheme. Glyphosate is used for general weed control.
§ Mr. Ron Daviesasked the Secretary of State for Scotland whether the Forestry Commission or any other statutory authority undertake any monitoring of, or grant approval for, the aerial spraying of pesticides on forest land in the private sector.
§ Mr. John MacKay[pursuant to his reply, 18 April 1985, c. 249]: An owner of forest land is not required at present to seek statutory approval for the aerial spraying of his land with pesticides; he is required, however, to obtain clearance under the pesticides safety precautions scheme for the use of the particular pesticide, unless he proposes to use azulam for the control of bracken. The flight operator must hold an aerial application certificate issued by the Civil Aviation Authority.