Legal victory: WildFish wins pesticide case against the Health and Safety Executive

WildFish welcomes yesterday’s ruling by the General Regulatory Chamber (GRC) which reaffirms that pesticide users “hold” pesticide records on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and that they can be requested by members of the public. The tribunal also confirmed that WildFish’s requests weren’t “manifestly unreasonable” and that there is public interest in disclosure.

Back in March and May this year, WildFish spent two days fighting for transparency in an appeal by the Health and Safety Executive against the Information Commissioner’s decision to order the release of information on harmful plant protection products (PPPs) used by farmers which we had requested following evidence of pollution in Wales.

PPPs include chemicals such as insecticides, weedkillers and fungicides which wash into rivers and streams when it rains. Our rivers are awash with these chemicals, which wipe out invertebrates and plants, disrupt food chains and interfere with the health of fish.

PPPs are supposed to be kept under proper control with effective checks and inspections. However, the HSE, which has the regulatory responsibility, rarely does its job properly.

Under Article 67 of EU Plant Protection Products Regulation, PPP users are supposed to keep three-years’ worth of detailed records and to supply them on request to the HSE. In turn, the HSE is required to provide access to the records under the PPP Regulations but also the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 which oblige public bodies (and those carrying out public functions) to provide such information upon request.

As with many of our cases at WildFish, regulators often rely on exemptions to avoid disclosing details.

We took over one important case concerning plant protection products after students at Cardiff University were refused access to information on glyphosate use by HSE on the basis that their request was “manifestly unreasonable”. We made a subsequent request to HSE after SmartRivers data on the Welsh Dee showed signs of pesticide pollution. We asked for Article 67 records in a particular sub-catchment but we were refused access. The Information Commissioner agreed with us that the information should be disclosed – but as with the Carmarthenshire case, the HSE appealed. Now the General Regulatory Chamber Tribunal (First Tier Tribunal) has ruled in our favour on all grounds.

Dr Justin Neal, Head of Legal at WildFish said:

“This is an important decision for the health of our rivers.

The Tribunal accepted our evidence that the records are important data not available elsewhere and that the disclosure would promote public understanding of pesticide use. There are huge blind-spots in farmer pesticide records because the HSE hasn’t been looking and simply refused to acknowledge its regulatory role.

Now environmental organisations will be able to ask for data to help understand the source and the effect of pesticides on our rivers.”

WildFish now calls on the HSE to meet its obligations following the judgment and comply with the law in disclosing the requested data.

Dr Janina Gray, Head of Science and Policy at WildFish, said:

“Our SmartRivers citizen science invertebrate monitoring flags up chemicals as a significant factor in water pollution. Access to farmers records is the next step in finding where the pesticide pollution is coming from. Armed with this knowledge we can act to stop it”.

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