National Action Plan on the Sustainable Use of Pesticides finally published

Written by: Steph Morren, Principal Policy Officer
Published: 27^th March 2025
Topic: National Action Plan for the sustainable use of pesticides.

Pesticides are chemicals designed to kill living things. A product may be designed to target a specific pest, but it has been estimated that less than 0.1% of pesticides actually reach their target. The remainder of these chemicals end up contaminating water and soil, affecting non-target species such as birds and bees and harming human health. The RSPB, through its role in the Pesticide Collaboration, calls for the reduction of pesticide related harms in various ways.  

The NAP should have been published in 2018 as part of the UK’s statutory obligations to the EU’s Sustainable Use Directive (now transposed into UK law) which requires the publication of a National Action Plan every 5 years. There was a public consultation on a draft in early 2021 but no sign of the published NAP since.  This has meant that over 7 years, when calling for progress against our asks for reducing pesticide related harms, we have been simply referred to ‘wait for the NAP’, halting the urgent progress needed.  You can read what we have been calling for here.

One of the key ‘wins’ is the inclusion of a pesticide reduction target, based on Pesticide Load Indicator (PLI) which, crucially, looks at both how much of a pesticide is used and how toxic it is.   Unfortunately, the target itself is quite low at 10% reduction by 2030 however it is a good step forward to explicitly state that pesticide reduction is required and is the direction of travel, as well as an evidence-based indicator that takes into account usage and toxicity. 

One area of concern, is that the Pesticide Load Indicator and therefore the target, only applies to the agricultural arable sector. Although this is where the majority of pesticides are used, it is problematic that no target exists for other farming systems, amenity and amateur use, or forestry.

Supporting farmers to increase integrated pest management and reduce reliance on pesticides is another of our key asks and the NAP gives some good case studies where farmers have used different IPM techniques including nature-based ones, to benefit their businesses.  

However, this section is lacking in any new ideas. The actions are all existing initiatives so it is unclear how together they will lead to an increase in IPM and contribute to a reduction in use of pesticides.  

In particular, the Sustainable Farming Initiative is listed as a route to encourage and support IPM in England in farming, but this was published very shortly after the announcement that the SFI would be closed for at least a year to new entrants. This section also shows poor ambition for amenity and amateur use of pesticides as well as forestry, which is mentioned only briefly.

Previous iterations, and the 2021 draft, included detail on pesticide regulation. This has all been stripped out of the 2025 NAP, which is focussing on usage only. This is positive if it enables regulatory reform separate to the five year NAP, however it does mean that there is a lack of any commitment to the Precautionary Principle and the hazard-based approach to chemicals regulation that is so important. We will need to watch very carefully for any proposed changes to the approvals process (which are absolutely needed) to ensure they benefit nature and people.

Again a key ask that we have campaigned for is the phase out of use of pesticides in our villages, towns and cities. The NAP didn’t contain any detail on this but we have been assured that it will be progressed separately.   

So in summary, we welcome the inclusion of an evidence-based pesticide reduction target based on both how much of a pesticide is used and how toxic it is - however we call for much greater ambition across other areas.  The government has stated that this NAP sets out a direction of travel, and that more detail will follow and we welcome working closely with Minister Hardy on this progress.