In readiness for professional pest controllers in private and public sectors, farmers, land managers and gamekeepers having to show proof of competence when purchasing professional use rodenticides under the forthcoming rodenticide stewardship regime, a list of 14 CRRU approved certificates has been released.
Five approvals are of ‘grandfather’ certificates from courses no longer taking place, now ratified as appropriate to stewardship conditions: For example, RSPH Level 2 Certificate in Pest Control (2000-2004). One new and seven current certificates, plus one more included as an approved update, make up the total (see table).
The Campaign for Responsible Rodenticide Use (CRRU) has been empowered by HSE for the stewardship regime’s development and implementation, funded 100% by the industry.
Training courses are reviewed for approval by the CRRU Training and Certification Work Group. To gain approval, they must cover 13 specific content elements and 11 training process attributes.
The course gaining new approved status is Rat Control for Gamekeepers, while CRRU Wildlife Aware gained approved status as an update, both being accredited by BASIS. An important distinction, explains CRRU chairman Dr Alan Buckle, is that Wildlife Aware is not a stand-alone certificate, but serves as a custom-made update for those who need to top up a time-expired basic certificate to approved status, or feel like they want to update themselves because they have an existing approved certificate that was obtained some time ago.
Under the stewardship regime, professional use rodenticide labels will state, ‘For supply to and use only by professional users holding certification demonstrating that they have been trained according to the UK second generation anticoagulant rodenticide (SGAR) stewardship programme requirements.’
This will apply to professional pest control companies and technicians, staff of local authorities who carry out routine rodent pest control, farmers, land managers and gamekeepers. According to an Information Document published by HSE in January this year, from 1 June 2016 only holders of an approved certificate will be able to buy professional SGAR products. More training courses will be considered by the CRRU Training and Certification Work Group in future
| ‘Grandfather’ certification | Current certification | New certification |
|---|---|---|
| RSPH/BPCA Level 2 Certificate in Pest Control (2004 – 2010) | RSPH/BPCA Level 2 Award in Pest Management (2010 onwards) | Rat Control for Gamekeepers (through BASIS) |
| RSPH Level 2 Certificate in Pest Control (2000 – 2004) | RSPH/BPCA Level 2 Certificate in Pest Management (2010 onwards) | RSPH Safe Use of Rodenticides |
| RSH Certificate in Pest Control (pre-2000) | RSPH Level 3 Diploma in Pest Management (2010 onwards) | Update certification |
| BPCA Diploma in Pest Control Part 1 (1998 – 2004) | City & Guilds NPTC Level 2 Award in the Safe Use of Pesticides for Vertebrate Pest Control for Rats and Mice (QCF) (PA-R&M) (2013 onwards) | CRRU Wildlife Aware (accredited by BASIS)
N.B. Approved in conjunction with current Wildlife Aware accreditation, as a necessary update into approved status, for those holding approved but time-expired ‘Grandfather’ and current certification (i.e. issued before the dates shown in brackets) listed in the first two columns of this table. |
| NPTC Level 2 Certificate of Competence in Vertebrate Pest Control (2004 – 2014) | LANTRA: Responsible and Effective Control of Commensal Rodents (2009 onwards) | |
| LANTRA: Rodent Control on Livestock Units (2013 onwards) | ||
| Killgerm Principles of Rodent Control (2004 onwards & through BASIS in future) |
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