Pesticide usage in Scotland: Rodenticide use by Local Authorities 2023

Future rodenticide monitoring and stewardship

EU and UK regulatory risk assessments have concluded that the use of anticoagulant rodenticides outdoors present a higher level of risk to non-target animals (such as predatory birds and mammals) than would normally be considered acceptable. However, regulators recognise that, despite these risks, their use is necessary as part of a properly managed rodent control strategy. In order to be able to authorise these rodenticides, the UK Government must be assured that the risks to non-target animals are properly managed. This requirement was addressed by the introduction, in April 2016, of an industry led stewardship scheme managed by CRRU⁽⁷⁾ with government oversight.

Arable and grassland agricultural rodenticide surveys are conducted in Scotland every two and four years respectively. As LA use of rodenticides is considerably less than that reported in agricultural settings, it is intended that this survey will be conducted every four years. This allows rodenticide use to be surveyed in a different sector each year, although a survey of 2019 LA usage scheduled for 2020 was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The data collected in this series of usage reports will reflect changes both in pattern of use, resulting from changes to authorisation conditions, and in user training and compliance with the conditions of stewardship. Significant post-stewardship changes in usage patterns have been described in other surveys in this series^{(2, 3)}.

Whilst the LA dataset does not capture all urban rodenticide use, its inclusion in the Scottish survey series may help to inform data on rodenticide residues in urban non-target species, as previous surveys have done in agricultural settings⁽⁸⁾.