The Glue Traps (Offences) Act 2022 permits only professional pest controllers to continue to use rodent glue boards under licence and only in exceptional circumstances. The ability for pest controllers to apply for glue trap licences opened on the 19 June 2024 and the glue trap ban will come into force on 31 July 2024.
The Glue Traps (Offences) Act 2022 aims to improve humaneness for target rodents, but also other animals that can sometimes become accidentally trapped. The Act gave users and suppliers of glue traps two years in which to finish off their existing stock and move to alternative methods of rodent control.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has appointed Natural England as the licensing authority. Natural England already provide guidance on animal welfare and is the licensing authority for other welfare-based licensing regimes.
Licences will only be issued in exceptional circumstances and where all alternative methods of rodent control are ineffective or impractical. Professional pest controllers can find further information on the licence application process here: Glue trap licences - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Only professional pest controllers involved in rodent control management will be able to hold a licence for glue trapping. A professional pest controller is someone who provides a pest control service for a public authority or as part of a business. To demonstrate this, applicants will need to:
(a) have completed both the following courses and will need to provide evidence of these with the licence application:
- Royal Society for Public Health Level 2 Award in pest management
- Natural England approved glue trap online training.
(b) supply a reference from another professional pest controller that vouches for their competency.
There are 2 types of licence:
- Class licence – you register in advance to use this licence. This licence only covers very specific situations, which are time-critical. Once you are registered, you do not need to inform the Licensing Authority (Natural England) before you act under this licence, but you must notify the Licensing Authority within 5 working days after you have used this licence, and at each site you use it. Every year you will be asked if you want to remain registered.
The Class Licence will permit use of glue traps in the following situations only:
- inside aircraft
- in hospital surgery operating rooms (and related areas needed for maintaining equipment)
- in critical infrastructure sites at imminent risk of fire or equipment failure. These would include: national security, national power generation, data management sites that support i.e. nuclear power stations, 999 emergency control rooms, at airport or transport control centres.
- Individual licences – you apply for a single-use licence at the time of need, to deal with a particular problem, at a particular site. The Licensing Authority (Natural England) will assess your application and issue a decision. You cannot use glue traps until you have received written confirmation from the Licensing Authority that your application has been approved and you have a copy of your licence.
Individual licences will only be issued in exceptional circumstances where there is a high risk to public health and safety and where all alternative methods of rodent control are ineffective.
Detailed evidence will be required of the alternative methods that have been tried.
Exceptional circumstances are considered to be those with a large-scale risk to public health and safety. For example: sites accommodating large numbers of vulnerable people (care homes, hospitals), food manufacturing facilities with national distribution, laboratories where contamination risk has nationally significant impacts.
It is important to note that under the legislation restaurants, take-aways and dwelling houses are not considered as exceptional circumstances.
