Manage plant health incidents

This standard is suitable for those who have responsibility for managing plant health incidents and emergencies as part of responsible organisations. 

It is applicable to all sectors relevant to plant health incidents and emergencies and applies to both plants, trees and plant products. It relates to the activities that you undertake before, during and after a plant health incident or emergency.

To meet this standard, you will be able to:

• prepare for pest and disease incidents (interceptions/outbreaks)

• undertake investigation actions and implement processes

• undertake response actions and implement processes

• undertake recovery actions and implement processes

For you to fully understand the content of the standard, and the activities it describes, it is important that you are able to understand the terms used within the standard. See Glossary for some definitions that should help you with this.

1. encourage ongoing observation by the sector to detect early signs of notifiable plant and tree pests and diseases
2. provide alerts and information to the sector on significant pests and diseases, what should be reported and how to report
3. check plans and procedures are in place to manage the investigation, response and recovery phases of plant health incidents
4. confirm that staffing resources are available and have received appropriate training 
5. receive notification of suspected plant health interception and/or outbreak incidents and initiate the necessary investigations to establish a diagnosis of the pest or disease and assess the significance of the findings
6. confirm the status of the pest or disease incident, the control authority, the scale of response, whether containment or eradication is feasible and any immediate actions 
7. confirm membership of the Incident Management Team and the responsibilities of members for response 
8. determine the incident action plan required to respond to the plant health incident
9. provide an initial response to the plant health incident
10. establish and maintain communication with the incident response team and everyone involved in or affected by the incident
11. monitor the success of the eradication/containment response outcome and plan the recovery phase 
12. maintain records of the incident and the actions taken in accordance with your organisation’s procedures
13. evaluate and report on the management of the plant health incident
14. use lessons learned from the incident to update plans, procedures and policies

1. the importance of encouraging ongoing observation by the sector to detect early signs of plant and tree pests and diseases and of providing alerts and information
2. the importance of providing information to the sector on what pests and diseases should be reported and how this should be done
3. how to use the relevant nation-specific legislation relating to the management of plant health incidents
4. the duties of the responsible organisations for the management of plant health incidents 
5. the plans and procedures in place to manage the investigation, response and recovery phases of plant health incidents 
6. the amount of staffing resources available and the importance of providing the appropriate training
7. how to initiate investigations to establish a diagnosis and assess the significance of a reported pest or disease interception and/or outbreak and what investigations are needed
8. how to implement the generic plant health contingency plan and pest-specific contingency plans
9. how to define the status of the pest or disease incident, the control authority, scale of response, whether containment or eradication is feasible and any immediate actions 
10. the role of the Incident Management Team and members’ roles and responsibilities for response 
11. how to determine the incident action plan required to respond to the plant health incident
12. how to establish and maintain communication, who needs to be communicated with and the importance of preparation 
13. how to monitor the success of the eradication/containment response outcome and plan the recovery stage
14. how to close the plant health incident and, if appropriate, transition to the response phase 
15. how to evaluate the management of the plant health incident
16. your organisation’s procedures for recording and reporting on the management of plant health incidents

Assess significance of interception and/or outbreak:

• Significance of pest and/or disease

• Location

• Extent

• Economic

• Public health

• Environment

• Social/Amenity

Biosecurity: Measures aimed at preventing the introduction and/or spread of harmful organisms and non-native species

Emergency: an urgent, unexpected, and usually dangerous event or situation that poses an immediate risk to health, life, property, or the environment and requires immediate action. An event or situation that threatens serious damage to human welfare in a place in the UK, the environment of a place in the UK, or the security of the UK or of a place in the UK.

Incident: an unintended event or situation that disturbs normal operations and requires a response from the emergency services or other responders. An incident can be defined as minor, moderate or major with a range of impacts on the organisation, sector, environment and people.

Incident Management Team: The management team used to respond and recover from plant health incidents

Potential actions to respond to a plant health incident:

• Establishing what subject matter experts are required 

• Commissioning diagnostics and research to inform management decisions

• Issue of statutory plant health notices on landowners

• Creation of Demarcated Areas to implement containment

• Direct action to implement pest and disease management procedures

• Destruction or treatment of affected plant material

• Restricting movement (eg of personnel/traffic) in and out of appropriate affected area/areas

• Thorough cleaning of equipment and machinery

• Tracking and tracing potentially affected plants forwards and backwards

• Maintaining communication with stakeholders

• Monitoring and collating the results

Prepare for plant health incidents including:

• Addressing research gaps

• Considering increasing laboratory and diagnostic capacity

• Creating and maintaining incident documentation and guidance

• Preparing pest-specific contingency plans

• Creating and implementing standard operating procedures

• Establishing diagnostics protocols

• Implementing training and exercises

• Making staffing resources available and appropriate contract and contractor availability

Recovery phase:

• De-escalation, gradual removal of restrictions

• Transition to the new normal

• Support and guidance for individuals, businesses, communities and environments affected

• Evaluation of lessons learned 

• Recommendations and review of current plans and procedures

Responsible organisations e.g.

• DEFRA

• Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA)

• Forestry Commission (FC)

• Forest Research (FR)

• Scottish Government (SG)

• SASA (a division of the Scottish Government Agriculture and Rural Economy Directorate (ARE)

• NatureScot

• Scottish Forestry (SF)

• Natural Resources Wales (NRW)

• Welsh Government

• DAERA Plant Health Directorate