Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of the Ragwort Control Act 2003 in preventing and controlling the spread of ragwort on (1) privately owned property, and (2) publicly owned land, such as roadside verges.

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.