Wildlife Incident Investigation Scheme (WIIS) incidents involving rodenticides: EIR release

Information requested

SASA maintains the Wildlife Incident Investigation Scheme database for Scotland and investigates incidents of suspected pesticide poisoning of wildlife and other animals. I am requesting data from the SASA WIIS records for research into the impact of professional pest control operations as part of a wider investigation into rodenticide use and non-target species harm across the United Kingdom.

Please limit your response to WIIS incidents recorded in Scotland between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2025 in which anticoagulant rodenticides were identified as the chemicals involved.

1. For incidents within the above scope, please provide a statistical breakdown showing the number of incidents by:

•  a. Local authority area (council area)
•  b. Category of use (approved use / misuse / abuse / unspecified use / background / unknown or equivalent categories used in the Scottish scheme)
•  c. Species affected or involved
•  d. Whether the operator was recorded as a professional pest control operator as opposed to a farmer, gamekeeper, householder or other category

2. Does SASA's WIIS database capture whether the rodenticide was deployed indoors, outdoors, or both? If so, please provide the breakdown of incidents within the scope by that field.

3. For incidents within the scope where a professional pest control operator was identified: did investigators record whether the operation was carried out on behalf of, or under contract to, a local authority? If so, how many such incidents were recorded?

4. Are there categories of contextual information that SASA investigators collect during WIIS investigations that are not published in HSE's UK-wide quarterly reports? If so, please describe those categories and confirm whether SASA holds them in a retrievable form.

Please note I am not requesting personal data, individual names, addresses or any other PII. I note that under Regulation 10 of EIR(S) 2004, any exception must be interpreted restrictively and the public interest test must be applied. The strong public interest in transparency regarding non-target harm from anticoagulant rodenticide use would weigh in favour of disclosure in any such assessment.

Response

I enclose a copy of most of the information you requested in excel spreadsheet summary format. The tab labelled “Categories” lists the categories we currently use to classify incidents in Scotland. These have been subdivided into more detailed categories for the purpose of your request as described in the spreadsheet. The tab labelled “Summary” provides the details you have requested in 1a, 1b and 1c.

We do not routinely collect information on the identity or occupation of the person using the chemical agents we detect. In Scotland we carry out chemical analysis first and field investigations are only conducted when the results warrant this. As such, we do not have the information you request in 1d, 2, or 3.

In response to your question 4. – we do not hold categories of contextual information that are not published in the HSE quarterly reports. We often receive more detailed background information about the circumstances of a case as well as the postmortem examination report where relevant, however we do not capture categorised information from these submissions. Note that cases are omitted from the HSE reports which are still under investigation by Police Scotland and could lead to a prosecution. These are released as updates once the investigation is complete. Any cases currently omitted from these reports have been included in the statistics we have provided in the attached excel summary.

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The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI 202600522249 - Information Released - Spreadsheet

File type

Excel document

File size

16.6 kB