Giant Hogweed: Health Hazards

(asked on 28th May 2020) - View Source

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what advice he is giving to local authorities, members of the public and others on the risk to health posed by giant hogweed; and if he will make a statement.


Answered by
Rebecca Pow Portrait
Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This question was answered on 8th June 2020

Giant hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum) is an invasive non-native species with established populations in the UK. If the sap of giant hogweed comes into contact with human skin it causes blistering if exposed to sunlight. This toxic sap complicates eradication efforts.

Giant hogweed is listed in England and Wales, under the Invasive Alien Species (Enforcement and Permitting) Order 2019 (the Order). As such, it must not be imported, kept, bred, transported, sold, used or exchanged, allowed to reproduce, grown, cultivated, or released into the environment. Under the Order, the Government has recently published a set of management measures for widespread listed species and advises the control and safe removal of giant hogweed, where possible.

Local Authorities may use Community Protection Notices made under the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 to tackle the impact to their communities of invasive non-native species including giant hogweed. The Home Office guidance on using community protection notices to tackle invasive non-native plants can be found at:

www.nonnativespecies.org//downloadDocument.cfm?id=1176.

Local Action Groups, with support from the Government, are actively involved in reducing and eradicating giant hogweed. They are supported by a project led by the Animal and Plant Health Agency which has published a good practice management guide for giant hogweed that provides health and safety advice relevant to the species. The guidance can be found by following the link below.

http://www.nonnativespecies.org/index.cfm?pageid=624

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