BPCA has replied to the Minister for the Cabinet Office Michael Gove's letter on pest management professionals being key workers.

While the states pest management employees can continue to go to work, he did not agree to add pest management to the key worker list.

BPCA Chief Executive, Ian Andrew, has written the letter on behalf of members, asking him to include pest management to the list of essential sectors incase the UK goes into further lockdown measures. 

In his letter, Ian gives 141 examples of types of sites pest professionals protect, based on the We think you're essential survey launched last week.

You can read the letter in full, here:

8 April 2020
The Rt Hon Michael Gove MP
Minister for the Cabinet Office
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
Cabinet Office
70 Whitehall
London
SW1A 2AS

RE: 141 reasons pest management need to be considered essential during Covid-19

Dear Rt Hon Michael Gove MP -

Having written previously, I apologise for writing again at this hectic time.

However, I need to outline why pest management must be categorised as a critical sector and included in the definitive list of key workers.

Our members are continuing to provide critical, essential services to protect:

• distressed members of the public 
• premises of other key workers and essential sectors
• vacant, non-essential businesses which are at high risk of pest ingress.

Disease, distress, damage to property, disruption of the food supply chain and threats to human safety can all be direct results of not taking pest management seriously. 

As you confirmed, we can continue to provide our services within the current lockdown criteria. However, we need to be able to reassure our members and their clients that the valuable work we do is considered essential by the Government during this crisis. 

By acknowledging us as key workers, you would help us protect the nation during this unprecedented time. 

If we move to a further stage of lockdown, as we have seen in our European neighbours and the USA, we assume only key workers will be able to travel and work. If pest management professionals don’t appear on the list, and therefore can’t work, then we could see a massive rise in public health pests while the nation is already at its most vulnerable. 

The pests we treat don’t realise that we are dealing with a pandemic. They will continue to seek food and harbourage. Pests are already moving closer to human activity in the search for new food sources.

In food manufacturing, we need to be able to continue to eradicate beetles, moths, cockroaches, mice and rats that are all pervasive in these environments. The same applies to our supermarkets and other retail premises.

When this pandemic has passed, business-owners will return to their premises and find pests have moved in. Stock will be ruined, wires and pipes gnawed, and the cost to the already suffering economy will continue to rise. 

The list goes on; wherever there are people, there is food, water and harbourage for pests. Wherever there are pests, there is disease, destruction and distress.

We asked our members what types of organisations they protected this week. Between them, they listed 141 types of premises. We’ve included the list in full and taken the time to highlight the ones that would currently be considered essential workers under your guidance. 

All of these organisations are integral for keeping the UK a vibrant, safe and a great place to live. They all need our protection. 

I urge you now to ensure that pest management appears on the key worker list when it is next re-published so that our members can continue to provide this key public health service.

Yours sincerely,

Ian Andrew
Chief Executive Officer
British Pest Control Association

ATTACHMENT: Premises our sector protect:

• Airports
• Allotments 
• Ambulance service 
• Animal testing centres
• Arable farms
• Bakeries
• Blocks of flats
• Boutique guest houses
• Bread factories
• Breakfast cereal manufacturers
• Brewery 
• Building sites
• Butchers 
• Cafes
• Call centres
• Car parts companies
• Car servicing workshops
• Caravan parks
• Care homes
• Cattle farm
• Centres for adults with learning difficulties 
• Charitable foundations
• Cheese processing company 
• Chemists 
• Children’s home 
• Chinese takeaways
• Churches
• Colleges
• Commercial vehicle sales 
• Communal public spaces
• Communication infrastructure
• Confectionery manufacturers
• Corner shops
• Council premises 
• Country estates
• Dairy farms
• Dessert manufacturers
• Distribution centres
• Doctor surgeries 
• Dried food factories
• Egg producers
• Energy companies
• Engineering sites
• Factories 
• Farm shops
• Farms
• Fish and Chip shops
• Fish processing plants
• Floor making company
• Flour milling
• Food banks 
• Food packing supplies warehouse
• Food preparation areas
• Food production sites
• Food warehousing
• Fruit farms
• Furniture companies
• Golf clubs 
• Grain stores
• Grammar schools
• Grocers
• Hatchery 
• Health centres
• Historic buildings
• Hospices
• Hostels 
• Hotels
• Indian takeaways
• Innovation centres 
• Land agents
• Leisure centres 
• Letting agent
• Local authority housing stock
• Local authority premises
• Local Government buildings
• Local medical premises
• Manufacturers of test kits for Covid-19
• Markets 
• Meat farms
• Meat processing plants
• Media groups
• Medical manufacturers
• Medical packers
• Medical suppliers 
• Medical warehousing
• Military sites
• Mills
• NHS buildings 
• Nurseries
• Offices
• Oil companies 
• Other local takeaways
• Packaged meal companies
• Parcel units
• Parking yards
• Pet food manufacturers
• Pharmaceutical grain facilities
• Pharmaceuticals manufacturers
• Pig farms
• Police stations 
• Potato farms
• Power stations
• Primary schools
• Private hospitals
• Public parks
• Pubs
• Railway stations
• Recycling collection and transfer station
• Research centres
• Residential clients
• Restaurants
• Retail establishments
• Retirement homes
• Road sweeper garages
• Sandwich shops
• Secondary schools
• Self-storage units
• Sewers
• Sheltered housing schemes 
• Shipping companies
• Ships
• Shopping centres
• Slaughterhouses 
• Small convenience store
• Small holdings 
• Snack food factories 
• Sporting arenas
• Stadiums
• Storage facilities
• Student accommodations 
• Supermarkets
• Supply chain warehousing
• Supported living for vulnerable adults
• Tenanted properties
• Tourist locations 
• Transport for London properties
• Universities
• Waste collection centre
• Waste management company 
• Water utilities
• Wholesalers 

Source: Online