AHDA Members Forced Disclosure

The Animal Health Distributors Association (AHDA) has labelled as "heavy-handed" the Environment Agency's (EA) approach of forcing some animal medicine merchants to disclose which of their agricultural customers purchase sheep dip products.

AHDA represents a significant proportion of UK animal health merchants, many of whom sell sheep dip products to the farming community. As such, the organisation's members are anxious to ensure sheep farmers are made fully aware that the EA can legally enforce merchants to divulge which customers are buying these products.

The EA is able to legally impose disclosure under a Section 202 notice (Water Resources Act 1991), which allows them to target farms using sheep dip and enforce water regulations and registration costs to ensure the safe disposal of spent dip.

A member of AHDA who recently refused to disclose such customer information was promptly made the subject of an enforcement order brought against them by the EA.

Ian Scott, Secretary General of AHDA, comments, "Making AHDA members disclose this information puts an unnecessary strain on the trust and long-term relationships AHDA members have with their customers."

He continues, "AHDA and its members fully support the efforts of farmers to dispose of spent dip correctly, but it's a pity the EA has decided to use this heavy-handed method in some parts of the country to extract information without making the end users aware."

AHDA also believes there is a danger that the approach could have potential effects on the control of parasites in the UK sheep population. Ian comments, "AHDA is currently working to have the suspension of Cypermethrin dip products lifted at the earliest possible opportunity to aid the fight against sheep scab."