Following on from the new glue trap licence regime announced by Natural England and Defra in May, the Glue Traps (Offences) Act 2022 will come into effect on 31 July 2024

2. The licensing regime considers “exceptional circumstances” to be instances where there is a large-scale risk to public health and safety, for example: sites accommodating large numbers of vulnerable people (hospitals), food manufacturing facilities, and laboratories where contamination risk has nationally significant impacts. Minister Pow has acknowledged that there may be a very low number of exceptional occasions where a pub, restaurant, supermarket, or hotel is faced with an infestation, caused, say, by major building works taking place adjacent to the premises, that puts public health at risk. In these very rare instances, the licensing regime should allow for pest controllers to apply for an individual licence, to be considered on a case-by-case basis. This to ensure that the situation is genuinely an exceptional circumstance and that there is no satisfactory alternative. These circumstances will not be added to the Class licence.