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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether there are any control orders made under the Ragwort Control Act 2003 currently in force; and whether there are any plans to make any such control orders.

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.