MEP hails victory on rat poisons

Scottish Conservative MEP Struan Stevenson has hailed an exemption for the most common forms of rat poison from an EU ban a "victory for common sense".

The proposed ban on so-called biocides as originally devised would have banned anticoagulant rodenticides, which make up around 95% of rat poisons in common use.

Pest controllers, farmers and others had been up in arms about the proposal, which they warned could have seen our best weapons against vermin vanish at a stroke.

A compromise reached by the European Parliament’s environment committee means key anticoagulants can continue to be used under controlled conditions. But member states must draw up plans to substitute them with less toxic alternatives.

Mr Stevenson said the deal was a "victory for common sense", but blasted other MEPs who had claimed the plans were nothing to worry about.

He said:

"It was quite clear when these regulations were first proposed that anticoagulant rodenticides would have been caught by the ban.

"I was deluged with representations from pest control experts, farmers and others who were alarmed at the proposals and have made it my duty to highlight those concerns.

"Banning these poisons certainly wouldn’t have been the first stupid regulation brought in by Brussels.

"Thankfully, due to the prominence I gave the issue, members have seen sense and come to a compromise.

"While that is to be welcomed, we must now ensure bureaucrats in Brussels don’t bully pest controllers into abandoning anticoagulants with no effective alternatives in place.

"Those who claimed this ban was nothing to worry about were clearly oblivious to the genuine and legitimate concerns raised by a whole host of interest groups in Scotland."