Plant protection products enforcement

Reporting an incident or concern

If you have a concern about non-compliance with the law on plant protection products or are aware of an incident relating to the use of plant protection products, you should report it to the appropriate enforcing authority. If you aren't sure whether the incident / concern involves a plant protection product, find out more about plant protection products.

Find out which is the right enforcing authority for concerns with plant protection products in Great Britain (GB).

The right enforcing authority for concerns about non-compliance with other laws that HSE oversees may be different. The following pages will help you decide on the right enforcing authority and tell you how to report your concern:

The plant protection products law that is enforced by HSE in GB is the GB Plant Protection Products Regulation (GB PPPR). If your concern relates to the plant protection products law that applies in Northern Ireland – the EU Plant Protection Products Regulation (EU PPPR) – please visit the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) website.

Reporting issues with plant protection products to HSE

If HSE is the appropriate enforcing authority for your concern about plant protection products, you should report it to the Enforcement Team in our Chemicals Regulation Division (CRD) directly. There is no need to fill in any forms, just email us at [email protected]. To ensure we can consider the complaint fully, please:

  • provide as much detail as you can about the incident or concern, including:
    • the company
    • the product(s) and / or active substance(s)
    • which part of the law you think has been breached
  • be specific – HSE cannot take enforcement action in relation to generic concerns
  • provide any relevant documentation such as:
    • product labels
    • Safety Data Sheets (SDSs)
    • links to webpages
  • tell us who you are – we may not investigate complaints from anonymous sources
  • let us know if you would prefer your details to remain confidential in any investigation we undertake

Please note: We will not investigate your complaint if you choose to remain anonymous and tell us that you do not want HSE to disclose that a complaint has been received, unless a vulnerable person is involved.

How we enforce

If you contact us about a plant protection product incident or concern we:

  • will acknowledge that we have received the information
  • may ask you for more information
  • will transfer any case to the relevant enforcing authority if it not for HSE – it will speed up the process if you can try to identify and contact the correct enforcing authority directly
  • will triage the incident / concern where HSE is the enforcing authority and establish a proposed course of action
  • will assign a priority to the incident / concern – cases are actioned in priority order
  • will inform you of our decisions – this may take some time depending on available resources and the depth of the investigation required
  • cannot provide details or updates relating to ongoing investigations unless there have been significant developments

HSE may not be able to investigate everything that is reported to us – we have to prioritise according to the severity of hazard and risk of harm to persons, animals and the environment. We will focus the majority of our resource on:

  • the incidents that give rise to the greatest risk
  • the issues or duty holders that cause us the greatest concern

As part of an inspection or investigation we may:

  • contact the duty holder for information – this may include requiring the duty holder to provide documentation or samples of products / active substances
  • visit the duty holder – we may or may not tell a duty holder of our intention to visit
  • purchase the duty holder's products online – we may do this covertly
  • use our enforcement powers, such as those to:
    • enter premises
    • seize evidence – including taking measurements, photographs, recordings and samples
    • serve enforcement notices
    • prosecute offenders

More information on the principles of HSE's investigations can be found on our central enforcement pages.

Offences and penalties

It is an offence for a person to fail to comply with, or cause another person to fail to comply with:

  • their duties under the law that controls plant protection products in GB – GB PPPR
  • the conditions of authorisation for a plant protection product authorised under GB PPPR

Other offences include:

  • obstructing an inspector
  • providing a false statement
  • failing to comply with a notice served by an inspector

It is important to note that, GB PPPR applies in parallel with a number of other laws, including other general chemical law such as GB REACH, GB CLP and General Product Safety (GPS) Regulations – this means that compliance with GB PPPR does not excuse a failure to comply with another law, and vice versa.

Where HSE determines it is appropriate to prosecute a person for an offence, they may be tried:

  • summarily – eg in the Magistrates' Courts in England and Wales or by summary complaint in the Sheriff Court in Scotland
  • on indictment – eg in the Crown Courts in England and Wales or by solemn proceedings in the Sheriff Court in Scotland

If a prosecution results in a conviction, then the Court will determine what penalty is appropriate in the circumstances. The maximum penalties available are set out in law and vary depending on whether:

  • the conviction was summary or on indictment
  • the offence was committed in England, Wales or Scotland

The Courts will usually fine an offender, although there is often no limit on the amount of fine that can be awarded.

Notices and prosecutions

Details of HSE's successful prosecutions and the notices we have issued are published on our website in the register of prosecutions and notices.

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Updated 2024-10-21