Proposed amendments to the pesticides (Vertebrate Pest Control) Regulations 1983

It is proposed that the Pesticides (Vertebrate Pest Control) Regulations 1983 should be amended, as soon as practicable, to provide robust assurances for the control of dangerous products by users. In the absence of a firmly committed date for the implementation of the hazardous substances part of the HSNO Act, and the consequent delay to implementing the ACVM Act, no firm date for the transfer of responsibility for vertebrate pest control (VPC) products from the Pesticides Board to ERMA New Zealand can be set.

Meanwhile, structural changes to administrative authorities and industries, and legislative changes since 1983 when the VPC Regulations were set, have meant that the regulations no longer reflect current practice, and act as inhibitors to improvements to the process of licensing operators and providing an appropriate level of control for the use of VPC products.

Some reasons for proposing changes to the existing regulations include:

• the redefinition of localities since the introduction of the Resource Management Act;
• the disappearance of some organisations, such as the New Zealand Forest Service, the Agricultural Pests Destruction Council and Pest Destruction Boards;
• reorganisations of Ministries by successive governments and the disappearance of the Director-General of Forests, and the Director-General of Lands;
• an ability to accommodate the introduction of contestable delivery of services. Previously, territorial authorities, having large operational service staffs, were approved to purchase 1080 and control its application. These authorities now contract out pest control operations to private operators.

In each of the cases above, the VPC Regulations require amendment to re-establish relevance in the current environment.

Improvements to the system for licensing VPC operators have been introduced where possible under the existing VPC Regulations (for example, a structured assessment of a ‘fit and proper person’). Other improvements cannot be achieved due to prescriptive details caught in the regulations.

Improvements proposed to enable MAF to better manage the licensing system and to provide assurances for the Pesticides Board include:

• removal of lifetime licences and introduction of an expiry date for a licence (two years has been proposed, following discussion with ERMA New Zealand);
• revision of the VPC licensed operator register (database), which will be possible only when time limited licensing is introduced. The current database contains tens of thousands of names of licensees issued since commencement of the VPC Regulations, and it is not possible to determine how many may be currently valid operators;
• the ability to introduce contestable delivery of training and examination services for applicants for VPC licences, by approved suppliers;
• the re-development of the training course material and the standardisation of training delivered nationally. This will also be possible only when contestable delivery of training services is introduced;
• the management of 1080 in Schedule 1 of the Act and the VPC products in Schedule 2 of the Act in the same manner with respect to the training provided and the approvals of purchasers and operators. It is appropriate that all users of VPC pesticides should operate within the same controlled environment;
• alteration of provisions for fees for licences, to provide flexibility to enable actual and reasonable cost recovery by MAF. The current actual costs for managing the training and the processing of licensing are currently not being recovered;
• other minor alterations to information required from licence applicants, such as replacing ‘address’ with ‘residential address’, will improve the ability to locate operators if necessary;
• the addition of provisions to track VPC products and inspect the distribution chain as proposed by ERMA because it will become a requirement under the HSNO Act.

A number of these changes reflect the requirements for VPC users under the HSNO Act and Regulations when they come into effect.

MAF will be seeking approval from the Pesticides Board for the proposed amendments to the VPC Regulations, and then will distribute the drafted amendments to interested parties for consultation. If you are interested in taking part in the consultation please contact Mary Burnett:

Mary Burnett
ACVM Group
PO Box 2526
WELLINGTON
Phone: 04 460 8750
Fax: 04 460 8771
Email: burnettm@maf.govt.nz