Approval, authorisation and marketing of plant protection products

The Regulation for placing Plant Protection Products on the market (1107/2009) which was agreed by the European Parliament and Council in October 2009 and came into force in all EU member states on 14th June 2011.

The Regulation aims to harmonise, as far as possible, the overall arrangements for authorisation of plant protection products within the EU. It also set out common rules and guidance on data requirements; data evaluation; risk assessment; the protection of commercial information (data protection); and public access to information on pesticides.

This replaces  EU Council Directive 91/414/EEC, which was implemented in the UK by the Plant Protection Product Regulations 2005 (as amended), with separate but similar legislation in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Although Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009 applies directly in the UK, national legislation below underpins its operation and introduces new fees and charges to replace the previous fees legislation. These new provisions are implemented by the following legislation:

The Plant Protection Products (Fees and Charges) Regulations 20111 

The Plant Protection Products Regulations 2011

The Control of Pesticides Regulations (COPR) 1986 updated by the COPR (Amendment) Regulations 1997 (SI 1997/188). COPR has largely been overtaken by the Regulation for placing plant protection products on the market, and only survives to regulate a few commodity substances and products used to generate ethylene (for fruit ripening) in the UK, which fall outside the scope of the EU regime.