§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in which counties in England and Wales pesticide registration authorities require products for home and garden use to be packed in child-restraint packages and rodenticides to be used only in tamper-proof bait stations; and what proposals are presently being considered by his Department under the Food and Environment Protection Act 1985 to control packaging on a nationwide basis.
§ Mr. Gummer[pursuant to his reply, 12 March 1986, c. 483]: There are no local pesticide registration authorities in the United Kingdom. Registration of pesticides is at present carried out on a nationwide basis under the non-statutory pesticides safety precautions scheme. It has not been possible to control packaging precisely as the hon. Member suggests under these non-statutory arrangements, but it has been a fundamental principle of the scheme that only low toxicity products in small volume packs are cleared for home and garden use and that the labels carry warnings to keep the products or baits away from children or pets. In addition, certain products are supplied in child-resistant bait stations.
It is proposed that under the regulations to be made under part III of the Food and Environment Protection Act 1985 it be made a condition of the approval of a pesticide that the container in which it is supplied be approved by the Government for that purpose; supply in a different 576W container thus becoming a criminal offence. In setting standards for containers the Government will rely on the advice of the Advisory Committee on Pesticides and the newly constituted Panel on Labelling and Container Design.