Pesticides Safety Directorate changes approval pattern

The UK Pesticides Safety Directorate (PSD) has made a number of changes to its approval templates. They apply to all templates issued under the Control of Pesticides Regulations (COPR) and Plant Protection Product Regulations (PPPR), with the exception of off-labels and adjuvant list entries. The changes will be phased in from April 1st and apply to product approvals issued after July 1st 2008.

There are five main changes. They include the introduction of a "general conditions" section, which aims to strengthen approval holders' obligations concerning labelling, packaging, mixing, adverse effects and information provision; and a new "confidential conditions" section for active ingredients and formulation details to support the general conditions section and to clarify what is the approved formula. The latter will specify the details of existing technical specifications as well as those of their respective data owners and for parallel imports, information of the product's approval in the country of origin.

The changes scrap references to provisional and full approvals under the COPR, standard and provisional approvals under the PPPR, as well as emergency and experimental approvals. All will be referred to as "approvals" but subject to different expiry dates or conditions of use relevant to the particular approval. The PSD will cease to issue Scottish notices of PPPR approvals as the new approvals will apply equally throughout Great Britain.

The move is to simplify and streamline the approval process. The PSD points out that the current system is very complex: it holds over 30 different templates for product approvals as a consequence of differing legislation (the COPR and the PPPR), the devolved authorities (England, Wales and Scotland) and varying types and approval levels.