Pesticide Stakeholder Group (PSG15) note of meeting: 18 September 2025

Attendees and apologies

Chair:

• Jackie Hughes, Scottish Government

Attendees:

• Gillian Reay, Scottish Government
• Katie Viezens, Scottish Government
• Debbie Kessell, Scottish Government
• Romy Strachan, Scottish Government
• Alison Knox, Scottish Government
• Jason Hubert, Scottish Forestry
• Sacha White, Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB)
• Hazel Doonan, Agriculture Industries Confederation (AIC)
• Ian MacDougall, Agriculture Industries Confederation (AIC)
• Andy Steven, Agrovista
• Miryana McKay, Angus Growers
• Ian Ludgate, British Association of Landscape Industries (BALI)
• Amy Geddes, Chair, Scottish VI / Cereal farmer representative
• Colin Palmer, Confederation of Forest Industries
• Wayne Brough, Horticultural Trades Association (HTA)
• Kim Parker, Horticulture Crop Protection UK Ltd
• Gaynor Malloch, James Hutton Institute (JHI)
• Alison Lees, James Hutton Institute (JHI)
• David Michie, National Farmers Union, Scotland (NFUS)
• Dave Bell, National Register of Sprayer Operators (NRoSO) , UK Voluntary Initiative
• Greg Dawson, Scottish Agronomy
• Darrell Crothers, Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA)
• Teresa Dougall, Scottish Quality Crops
• Hannah Blitzer, Soil Association
• Neil Havis, SRUC (Scotland's Rural College)
• Neal Evans, UK Voluntary Initiative

Items and actions

Welcome 

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and passed on apologies from the Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity due to other diary commitments. The note of this meeting will be shared with the Minister to ensure that he is aware of discussions.

The Chair welcomed new member, Neil Havis, who has taken over from Fiona Burnett representing SRUC, to the Group.  

Matters arising 

The minutes from PSG14 (held on  5th June 2025) had previously been agreed.

The updated action log was circulated to members prior to the meeting. In relation to the outstanding actions: 

• PSG14-01: No comments were received, and this action will now be closed, however comments/questions in relation to EU-reset work (to enable Scottish concerns to be raised at meetings with UK counterparts) continue to be welcomed via the PSG secretariat. 
• PSG14-03: No comments were received, and this action will now be closed, however comments in relation to the Agriculture Reform Programme would continue to be welcomed via the PSG secretariat and highlighted to the Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity and relevant Scottish Government team.  
• PSG14-04: AIC will provide links to guidance in relation to what products can be used on cover crops when finalised.  Ongoing.
• PSG13-02: The SG agreed to contact HSE regarding aphids which are resistant to neonicotinoids and potential cross resistance to flupyradifurone. The following response was received from HSE:  

“IRAC (Insecticide Resistance Action Committee) Group 4 list the active substances with the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor agonists (nAChR) modes of action. There are sub groups within this group – of which the sole member of sub group 4D is flupyradifurone. We do not see metabolic resistance occurring between these sub groups – but there is the potential for cross resistance occurring if target site resistance develops in one of the sub groups.

Resistance to neonicotinoid (sub group 4A) has been recorded for different pests for over a decade and recently there been concern of a neonicotinoid resistance- 4A (target site) in Myzus persicae in Belgium and subsequent trapping of individuals in UK. Currently, across Europe, only Greece has recorded resistance to Flupyradifurone and this is in Myzus persicae.

HSE labelling resistance management advice for products containing Group 4 actives is in line with IRAC recommendations and does limit the applications of any group 4 active to a crop.

IRAG (Insecticide Resistance Action Group) maintain information on the status of resistance in UK pests. HSE/CRD participates in these meetings and is informed of any changes in resistance status.  There is an avenue for consideration of adverse data – we then look at what resistance measures we would put in place on the label; IRAC phrasing is already restrictive.”

Scottish Government Updates

A Scottish Government written update was provided to the group in advance of the meeting. In addition to the update, the following points were highlighted:

Ethylene - the regulatory position with ethylene was detailed as: 

• Authorised products containing the active substance – regulated under 1107 are being withdrawn due to no support of the active for renewal; however
• Farmers can still use ethylene via its commodity substance approval – regulated under the Control of Pesticide Regulations (COPR). The date of expiry has now been extended to 31 August 2027
• In situ generation of ethylene from ethanol (Restrain Fuel) – regulated under COPR is still available for use (product expiry date 29/02/2028)

Position on PFA Chemicals

A request for information was made prior to the meeting regarding the UK position on plant protection products (PPP) containing per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and in particular reaction to recent decision making by the Danish Environmental Protection Agency. The chair confirmed that Scottish Government are aware of the action taken by the Danish EPA in relation to 6 PPP active substances that have been reported to break down to trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) and noted that all are used in in UK and Scottish agricultural systems, and some are key components in Scottish crop protection. 

In the UK, HSE continues to work with policy colleagues and other GB regulators on the question of PFAS more generally, as well as in relation to PPPs, to provide appropriate advice into policy development. In relation to TFA in particular, HSE is aware of research from European countries exploring the link between pesticides and TFA in environmental samples, particularly in groundwater. From a regulatory perspective, where TFA is identified as a metabolite of a pesticide active substance it is included in the standard regulatory assessment, including assessment of risks in surface water and groundwater leaching risk.

Defra Presentation / Discussion:  Pesticide Load Indicator 

The Chair invited Daniel Kenna from Defra to give a presentation on the UK Pesticide Load Indicator (PLI). A copy of the presentation was issued to group members. To complement the presentation, the following links to the PLI reports are included below: 

• PLI Phase 3: Finalisation of the Pesticide Load Indicator - PC0113
• PLI Phase 4: Pesticide Load Indicator Phase 4 - PC0116
• PLI Phase 5: Pesticide Load Indicator - Phase 5 Data Update - PC0122

During discussion, group members explored the following areas:  

• Information sources: it was highlighted that the pesticide database information which is used in the PLI analysis (Pesticides properties Database, PPDB) is informed by a number of sources (primarily from registrations submitted from HSE and EU regulatory sources but also data from other jurisdictions where there are data gaps).  
• The following background information was subsequently provided: The PPDB was initiated in 1996 to collate and harmonise datasets from a comprehensive range of pesticide risk assessments and existing data sources. This includes regulatory dossiers, such as those from EFSA, US EPA and CRD, and peer-reviewed literature (subject to meeting scientific quality standards). Since 2007 the PPDB has been available as a free-to-access website hosted and maintained by the University of Hertfordshire's Agriculture and Environment Research Unit (AERU). It is also available as an offline MS Access database for use under licence. The current relational database holds up to 320 individual parameters for approximately 2500 pesticide active substances and over 750 metabolites. The data in the PPDB are updated on an almost daily basis and are supported by an extensive quality management system. This includes scoring of the publishing source, data traceability and consistency with other information sources and is subject to internal rolling review as well as periodic external audit. In its 25 years of existence, the PPDB has been utilised in a wide range of policy, commercial and scientific applications, with ongoing development focused on expanding the range of included indices. For further details of the system and underlying data model see Lewis et al. (2016). 
• Further details regarding how the information is constructed can also be found in the databases support documents.
• Baseline Year: using 2018 as the baseline year gives an appropriate timeframe, across the period of the NAP, to see changes. In addition, pesticide applications in 2018 were not heavily impacted by weather patterns and changes in crop patterns.  It was also noted that using an average across a number of years was considered but deemed inappropriate. 
• PLI scores can be generated for any crops where sufficient pesticide usage data exists. Work is currently underway to improve and test methods for calculating the PLI on pesticide usage surveys other than arable. Further information will be published in due course.
• Different reference substances are used for each metric in the PLI, which will remain the same going forward to ensure a consistent benchmark.
• Methodology: it is planned that a peer reviewed paper with more detail on the methodology would be published early in the next financial year.

Any further questions for Danny can be submitted via the PSG secretariat.     

James Hutton Institute Presentation / Discussion: Overview of research to support the UK Pesticides National Action Plan (NAP) 

The Chair invited Lorena Rangel (JHI) to give an overview of research being undertaken to support the UK Pesticides NAP (this was in response to action PSG14-02 from the previous meeting held on 5 June 2025, where JHI had provided information on their research: Research Innovations Underpin Scotland’s Push to Cut Pesticide Use | SEFARI

A copy of the presentation was issued to group members.  

Open discussion/Round-table

There was not sufficient time to cover the round table element of the meeting. The Chair invited group members to send sector or organisation specific updates to the PSG Secretariat, for inclusion in the note of the meeting.

Date of next meeting and close

The Chair thanked everyone for their participation.  The date for the next meeting has now been confirmed for 18 December.

PSG Secretariat
October 2025