Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much paraquat was exported from the UK in (a) 2019, (b) 2020 and (c) 2021 as recorded by the Health and Safety Executive.

Following the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union (EU) on 31 January 2020, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) no longer has access to data to give a UK specific figure for the export of paraquat in 2019.

However, the European Chemicals Agency provides EU data for 2019 covering an aggregated volume for paraquat and some chloroform, which is available here: Report on exports and imports in 2017 of chemicals listed in Annex I to the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) Regulation (europa.eu).

HSE’s data, collected annually since 2020, shows that in 2020, exports of paraquat from Great Britain (GB) totalled just over 10 thousand tonnes. The total export of paraquat from GB in 2021 will be published by HSE later this year.

Under GB PIC, HSE does not approve the export of paraquat (or any other substance on the PIC list) but administers a system for the notification of exports of chemicals on the PIC list, including paraquat. HSE should be notified of the planned export of paraquat and seek the consent of the importing country.

HSE’s data shows that the countries who have given consent to the import of paraquat include Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, India, Mexico, Singapore, South Africa, Japan, Paraguay and the United States.