Meet your pest control, landscaping and waste duties

Building and landscape services carry four sets of duties on top of the workplace and employment foundation. Pest-control operators must use only authorised biocidal products and hold competence certificates for professional pesticides. Landscapers and grounds-maintenance contractors must comply with the waste duty of care when removing green waste and must not cause listed invasive non-native species to spread. The sections below take you through each duty in turn.

A. Use biocidal products safely and lawfully

As a pest controller you use biocidal products — rodenticides, insecticides, disinfectants and preservatives — rather than place them on the market, and two duties follow. First, only use products that hold a current authorisation under the GB Biocidal Products Regulation (assimilated Regulation (EU) No 528/2012). The Health and Safety Executive is the GB competent authority, with the Environment Agency, SEPA and NRW advising on environmental aspects. Use each product strictly to its label and authorisation conditions, and control your own exposure under COSHH. If you use biocidal products in Northern Ireland, check the position separately — Northern Ireland follows the EU Biocidal Products Regulation under the Windsor Framework, so the requirements there can differ.

Second, professional rodenticides are subject to the UK Rodenticide Stewardship Regime. To buy and use professional second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides you must demonstrate competence at the point of sale. From 1 January 2026 the only accepted proofs are a stewardship-approved training certificate gained within the last five years, or membership of an approved continuing-professional-development scheme — membership of a farm-assurance scheme alone is no longer enough.

B. Hold pesticide-competence certificates

If you apply professional plant-protection products — herbicides for weed control, insecticides, fungicides — you must comply with the Plant Protection Products (Sustainable Use) Regulations 2012. Operators must hold a certificate of competence (typically City and Guilds Level 2, or the PA1 foundation plus the relevant application module such as PA6 for hand-held applicators) or work under the direct supervision of a certificate holder. You must use only authorised products in line with the label, keep records of applications, and have your application equipment tested. The Health and Safety Executive (Chemicals Regulation Division) regulates in Great Britain. In Northern Ireland the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) regulates, and separate training requirements may apply.

C. Comply with the green-waste duty of care

Garden and landscaping waste — grass clippings, hedge trimmings, tree arisings, soil and turf — is controlled waste. If your business removes it from a customer's site, you must comply with the waste duty of care: register as a waste carrier, transfer waste only to an authorised person, and complete a waste transfer note describing the waste. In England, Wales and Scotland the duty is section 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, and the Environment Agency, Natural Resources Wales (NRW) and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) register carriers. In Northern Ireland the equivalent duty is Article 5 of the Waste and Contaminated Land (Northern Ireland) Order 1997, regulated by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA). Because you carry another person's waste in the course of business, you need upper-tier carrier registration. From October 2027 waste carriers must record waste movements through the digital waste tracking service; until then a paper or electronic transfer note remains the record.

D. Do not cause invasive non-native species to spread

Grounds and landscape contractors must not cause certain invasive non-native plants — such as Japanese knotweed, giant hogweed and Himalayan balsam — to spread in the wild. In England and Wales this is an offence under section 14 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (Schedule 9 species). In Scotland the Wildlife and Natural Environment (Scotland) Act 2011 strengthened the controls on non-native species. In Northern Ireland the Wildlife (Northern Ireland) Order 1985 creates equivalent offences. Soil and plant material contaminated with listed species is also controlled waste, requiring disposal at a licensed facility. Treatment and removal must follow an approved management plan.

What to do next

With the workplace spine and these specialist duties in place, confirm the whole picture with the building and landscape services compliance checklist. If you are not sure which guides apply to you, start from the router.