Nuisance provisions of the Public Health etc (Scotland) Act 2008: guidance

INTRODUCTION

There are many insects that may be the cause of a statutory nuisance. These insects may be vectors of disease (such as mosquitoes), pathogen transfer (flies) and nuisance (such as midges, fruit flies). Some insects have been linked with asthma (domestic exposure to cockroaches).

This Technical Guidance considers a range of insects and evaluates the potential for each one to cause health impact and nuisance. The guidance is provided in the form of insect specific factsheets as follows that consider indicators of nuisance and common control measures:-

Section 1 Mosquitoes
Section 2 Flies General
Section 3 Fruit Flies
Section 4 Sewage Flies
Section 5 Cockroaches
Section 6 Midges

These factsheets include general indicators of the types of controls that may be taken into account when evaluating best practicable means. In addition to these insect-specific factsheets there are three process-specific good practice guidance sheets as follows:-

Section 7 Good practice for animal husbandry units
Section 8 Good practice for manure handling
Section 9 Good practice for waste water treatment works ( WWTWs)

Whilst Section 9 relates to WWTWs, it is intended that Scottish Ministers will utilise the powers within the Water Services etc (Scotland) Act 2005 to produce a new code for insect control and such a code will supersede this guidance.

Environmental management should be the first option when assessing insect control measures. Any mitigating treatment should take account of factors including impact on health and well-being; impact on the target and non-target species; impact on the environment including ground and water source contamination; cost and efficacy.

Also attached to this Appendix is Schedule 5 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.