Plant protection products registration deadline approaching
Businesses involved in supplying pesticides for home garden use or using pesticides professionally must register by 31 December 2022
Northern Ireland businesses involved in placing on the market pesticides for professional and/or amateur use, or using professional pesticides as part of your work activity, must be registered with the Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland (DAERA).
This includes registering your details and business activities to confirm with DAERA that you are complying with the Official Controls (Plant Protection Products) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2020.
Pesticides are plant protection products used to protect crops against harmful pests and diseases, checking or preventing undesirable growth of plants, or to control weeds. Examples include insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, molluscicides, plant growth regulators and seed treatments.
How to register
You must register with DAERA if your business is located in Northern Ireland and falls into one of three categories.
Supplying for professional use
You must register if you are involved in the supply chain of pesticides, their ingredients and adjuvants which are to be made available to buy for professional use including:
- manufacturers
- importers
- processors
- distributers
Businesses supplying the market for professional use should have registered by 31 March 2022.
Supplying for amateur use
You must register if your business places on the market pesticides for amateur (home garden) use.
Register now as a supply chain business.
The deadline for registration is Saturday 31 December 2022.
Professional users
You must register if you use pesticides in a professional capacity as part of your work activity, or if you have professional pesticides applied by a third party as part of your work in agriculture, horticulture, forestry or the amenity sector. This is a new legal requirement.
Register now as a professional user.
The deadline for registration is Saturday 31 December 2022.
Further guidance to help you to determine whether you need to apply to join the register, details of exemptions and more help with registration can be found on the DAERA website.
Who does not need to register?
You do not need to register is:
- you use pesticides as part of your gardening hobby
- your business is located in England, Scotland and Wales (Great Britain) - however you must register with the Department for Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) for inclusion onto the GB Official Controls Regulation 2020 register of operators
First published 7 November 2022