Defra’s injurious weeds policy aims to balance a variety of different interests in the countryside. We have not made an assessment of the effectiveness of the Ragwort Control Act 2003, as this Act amends the Weeds Act 1959 by inserting a provision enabling the Secretary of State to produce statutory guidance in the form of a ‘code of practice’ on how to prevent the spread of ragwort.

The Secretary of State published a code of practice in 2004, which aims to define the situations in which there is a likelihood of ragwort spreading to neighbouring land where it will then present an identifiable risk of ingestions by vulnerable animals, and to provide guidance on the most appropriate means of control, taking into account both animal welfare and environmental considerations. This is available on the GOV.UK website.

Natural England is the responsible authority for investigating complaints about injurious weeds under the Weeds Act 1959 in England and collects data on injurious weeds complaints to monitor the number of complaints in each season. This data is reviewed annually by Defra and Natural England, and from the 2018 season this data is available on data.gov.uk.

We have not made an assessment of the effectiveness of the Ragwort Control Act 2003, as this Act amends the Weeds Act 1959 by inserting a provision enabling the Secretary of State to produce statutory guidance in the form of a ‘code of practice’ on how to prevent the spread of ragwort. The Secretary of State, published a code of practice in 2004 and this is available on the gov.uk website.

Defra injurious weeds policy aims to balance a variety of different interests in the countryside. This is reflected in the published ‘Code of Practice on how to prevent the spread of ragwort’.

Natural England is the responsible authority for investigating complaints about injurious weeds, and collects data on injurious weeds complaints to monitor the number of complaints in each season. This data is reviewed annually by Defra and Natural England and from the 2018 season this data is available on data.gov.uk.

The effectiveness of the Act is assessed annually by recording details of complaints and enforcement cases. Research undertaken for Defra in 2014 concluded that ragwort is not becoming more widespread.

The Weeds Act 1959 gives us the power to arrange for the clearance of the plant and to recover the cost from the land occupier. Natural England (the delegated authority for investigating complaints about injurious weeds) engages with inspectors from the Rural Payments Agency to investigate formal complaints raised to them, and enforce weed clearance where the landowner has not taken adequate action to control ragwort.

Enforcement is a last resort and where possible we encourage communications between landowners and complainants to try and resolve the issue. In the vast majority of cases, this approach is successful. All complaints so far have been resolved without requiring prosecution, either voluntarily by the landowner or after an enforcement order has been made.

The effectiveness of this Act is assessed annually by recording details of complaints and enforcement cases. Research undertaken for Defra in 2013 concluded that ragwort is not becoming more widespread.

The Ragwort Control Act 2003 contains provision for a Code of Practice for the management and control of ragwort.

Common ragwort is one of the five, so called ‘injurious weeds’ and is toxic to grazing livestock including horses, so the priority is to protect them where there is a risk of them ingesting dead, dying or green ragwort. The Government recognises the impact that ragwort ingestion can have and we ask that landowners take all reasonable steps to ensure that ragwort does not spread from their land onto adjoining land, where it poses a risk to grazing livestock, land used for grazing or to produce hay/forage. Where complaints are received and there is a genuine risk to grazing livestock then action to ensure compliance is taken with private individuals or public bodies.

The Ragwort Control Act 2003 makes no provision for control orders. The purpose of the Act is to provide for a code of practice to give guidance on how to prevent the spread of ragwort to be prepared. This resulted in the Code of Practice on How to Prevent the Spread of Ragwort which was published in 2004.

Natural England, the delegated authority for investigating complaints about injurious weeds, can issue enforcement notices under the Weeds Act 1959 where ragwort poses a high risk to grazing livestock or agricultural land.

The number of enforcement notices served under the Weeds Act 1959 in 2013, 2012 and 2011 is as follows:

Enforcement is a last resort and where possible we encourage communications between landowners and complainants to try and resolve the issue. In the vast majority of cases this approach is successful.