A scientific authorisation is required to import, move or keep invertebrate plant pests or plant pathogens which meet certain conditions.
If the pest meets one of the following conditions, it will require an authorisation:
- they’re Great Britain quarantine pests listed in Annex 2 of the Phytosanitary Conditions Regulations
- they’re Great Britain provisional quarantine pests listed in Annex 2A of the Phytosanitary Conditions Regulations
- they’re Pest Free Area (PFA) quarantine pests for Great Britain listed in Annex 3 of the Phytosanitary Conditions Regulations
- they’re assessed to be a Great Britain potential quarantine pest (PQP) by Defra
You do not need an authorisation to import, move or keep invertebrate plant pests or plant pathogens which meet any one of the following conditions:
- they’re a Regulated Non-Quarantine Pest (RNQP) listed in Annex 4 of the Phytosanitary Conditions Regulations
- they’re assessed not to be a Great Britain potential quarantine pest (PQP) by Defra
Potential Quarantine Pests (PQPs)
Legislation requires that unlisted pests now need to be assessed against provisional quarantine pest criteria. The GB provisional quarantine pest assessment criteria is laid out in Annex I, section III, subsection I of The Plant Health Regulation. For a pest to meet this criteria it must;
- have a clearly defined identity,
- be absent from GB (or only present in limited parts), be able to establish and spread within GB and
- have the potential to cause economic, social or environmental impacts.
Criteria to suggest whether the pest is able to enter GB are irrelevant as the pest is being intentionally imported.
Under the new requirements, for a pest present in GB to require a scientific authorisation, there must be evidence of strains, populations, isolates etc. which are absent from GB and pose an increased risk to those already present. This may be evidence of pesticide resistance (against available UK actives), increased pathogenicity, increased virulence or an increased host range.
Back to what requires a scientific authorisation?
Back to Scientific authorisations guidance for authorisation holders and applicants