Written for gardeners and garden maintenance rounds, landscapers, grounds maintenance contractors, tree surgeons and arborists, lawn treatment, fencing and paving firms, including winter hedge, tree and gritting work, in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The short version
- Make sure every sprayer is certified.Usually PA1 plus PA6 for hand-held kit, or PA6AW in or near water. Without one, only a trainee may spray, supervised by a certificate holder.
- Keep the spray and waste paperwork.Spray records: at least 3 years. In England and Wales, register as a waste carrier and keep transfer notes 2 years (As of Oct 2026).
- Check the fuel and the trailer.Red diesel depends on the machine and what it is actually used for. Towing depends on your licence and your van's plated weights.
Four parts of everyday garden work carry their own legal rules: the chemicals you put down, the waste you take away, the fuel in your machines and the weight behind your van. Most leave a record you must be able to show. Fences, front drives and digging near a neighbour's house add planning and notice rules of their own.
Spraying: the certificate and the record
A certificate for every professional user
Anyone using a professional plant protection product must hold a certificate of competence, and grandfather rights ended on 26 November 2015. The usual route is PA1 (foundation) plus the module for the kit: PA6 for hand-held applicators, and PA6AW for hand-held use in or near water. A supervised trainee may work under a certificate holder only while training. As of Oct 2026.
Plant Protection Products (Sustainable Use) Regulations 2012, SI 2012/1657, reg 8(1)
A record of every application
Record the product, time, dose, area and the crop or situation treated, and keep the records for at least 3 years. As of Oct 2026.
Retained Regulation (EC) 1107/2009 Art 67
A good record also carries the product's MAPP number, the operator and their certificate, and the weather. On a professional product the label is law: keep it in a locked, bunded store as the label requires, and use only products approved for amenity or professional use on that situation. Using a herbicide in or within reach of a watercourse or pond also needs the regulator's agreement first (the Environment Agency in England, on form AqHerb01; Natural Resources Wales; SEPA in Scotland), with a product approved for aquatic use.
Grandfather rights ended in 2015, so experience alone no longer counts, and the certificate has to match the method.
Green waste: registration and transfer notes
The waste duty of care
In England and Wales, a landscaper carrying clients' green waste, soil or rubble needs the applicable carrier registration, a waste transfer note or equivalent for each load of non-hazardous waste, and the notes kept for 2 years. Hazardous waste generally needs a consignment note. As of Oct 2026.
Environmental Protection Act 1990 s.34; Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011 reg 35
- In England, upper-tier carrier registration is renewed every 3 years. As of Oct 2026.
- A transfer note records the description and EWC code, quantity, container, both parties and their registration numbers, and the place and date of transfer.
- A season ticket can cover repeated transfers for up to one year, but only with the same holder, carrier and waste type, and a schedule recording each transfer. As of Oct 2026.
- Japanese knotweed never goes in green waste: cut material and soil with rhizome must go to a site permitted to take it.
In England, SI 2026/873 replaces carrier registration with environmental permits or registered exemptions, with the main changes from 22 July 2027 and existing registrants generally moving across when their registration was due to expire, so check the transition before you renew. As of Oct 2026.
Red diesel and towing
Red diesel depends on the use
Since 1 April 2022, rebated fuel has generally been restricted to specified vehicles, machines and purposes. HMRC accepts cultivating and maintaining gardens as horticulture, which qualifies, but general landscaping and maintaining grassy recreational areas, playing fields and most parkland do not. Check the machine and its actual use before you fill it. As of Oct 2026.
HMRC Excise Notice 75 sections 2, 3.5, 6, 7.9 to 7.11, 13 and 14
Towing on a car licence
In Great Britain, a driver who passed a car test from 1 January 1997 may tow a trailer up to 3,500 kg maximum authorised mass without a separate trailer test, since the change on 16 December 2021. Drivers licensed before 1997 usually have broader entitlement, and Northern Ireland has its own rules. As of Oct 2026.
SI 2021/1450
The licence is not the only limit on towing. Stay within the plated gross train weight and payload, and check them on a weighbridge when you carry a digger or stone. Operator licensing and drivers' hours have their own conditions, so check GOV.UK or nidirect before towing for the business.
Fences, front drives and digging near a neighbour
Permitted development, England
Fences, walls and gates are permitted up to 1 m high next to a highway used by vehicles and 2 m elsewhere. A new or replaced front garden hard surface over 5 m2 must be permeable or drain to a permeable area within the property, or it needs planning permission. Listed buildings, conservation areas and Article 4 directions take these rights away, and Wales and Scotland have their own orders. As of Oct 2026.
Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 Sch 2 Part 1 Class F and Part 2 Class A
Digging near a neighbour's building
In England and Wales, digging within 3 m of a neighbour's building to below its foundations, or within 6 m where the dig cuts a 45-degree line down from them, needs the building owner's notice at least one month before. The client serves it; do not dig until it is settled. As of Oct 2026.
Party Wall etc. Act 1996 s.6
Asked in Greymill
Why: grandfather rights ended in 2015, so 20 years' experience no longer counts. Anyone using a professional plant protection product, such as a weedkiller sold for professional use, must hold a certificate of competence.
The usual route:
PA1, the foundation module
PA6 for hand-held kit like a knapsack
PA6AW if he sprays by hand in or near water
Until then: he can spray only while he is training for it, under a certificate holder's supervision.
Easy to forget: the spray record. Log the product, time, dose, area and what was treated for every application, and keep it at least 3 years (As of Oct 2026). Note each person's certificate against their name too.
Need a record sheet? I can make a one-page one the crew can fill in from Monday.
Ask it about your own business
Paste this into Greymill with your own figures, and Rules & Licensing works it through for your business.
I run a landscaping or gardening business in the UK. We work in [England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland]. My team is [number] people, and [who holds which spray certificates]. We spray [where, including whether near water], carry [green waste, soil or rubble] in [vehicle], run [machines] on [fuel], tow [trailer and typical load] on [whose driving licences] and build [fences, front drives or patios near a neighbour's house]. Tell me which certificates, registrations, permissions and records we are missing, and give me a simple spray record and waste log to use from Monday.
More for landscaping and gardening in the UK
- Pricing a crew hour and a year of maintenance visits so the rain days are paid forBuild your rate from what a productive hour really costs once holidays, weather and the van are counted, then price maintenance contracts from measured visit times.Read the lesson
- Getting through December to February when the grass stops and the tax bill landsLandscaping cash is lowest in the winter, just as Self Assessment falls due on 31 January, so size the gap and smooth your income before the season ends.Read the lesson
- Going over the VAT threshold, a developer's zero-rating and a builder's CIS: what goes on my invoice?Most landscaping is simply standard-rated, but a strong summer can take you over the VAT threshold, and work for builders and developers brings in zero-rating on new homes and the Construction Industry Scheme.Read the lesson
- Quotes agreed in the client's garden, plant guarantees and long contracts: the terms that cost landscapers moneyA quote agreed at the client's home, an open-ended plant guarantee and a long contract priced flat can each cost you the profit on a job, and each has a fix.Read the lesson
- Taking on summer labourers without a holiday pay bill or a right-to-work fine laterSeasonal crews bring three traps: holiday for irregular hours, right-to-work checks that now reach individual subcontractors, and visa routes that do not cover landscaping.Read the lesson
- Winning more domestic rounds and council grounds contracts, and pricing the staff who come with a re-tenderDomestic rounds grow street by street on honest reviews, public and housing grounds work is won on paperwork as much as price, and a re-tender can hand you the outgoing contractor's staff.Read the lesson
- I've found a nest, knotweed or a protected tree halfway through the job: what now?Some discoveries turn a garden job into an offence the moment you carry on, and the law binds the contractor as well as the client; two safety stops apply to every tree and verge crew too.Read the lesson
Open the interactive lesson · Every landscaping and gardening lesson · What Greymill knows about the trade
Sources
The primary sources behind this lesson, checked Oct 2026.
- reg 8(1) (no use of a professional product without a specified certificate or supervision); reg 9(5) concerns purchase for use (Pesticides, invasive plants, waste, fuel and towing: the rules for the work)
- Pesticide application units (Pesticides, invasive plants, waste, fuel and towing: the rules for the work)
- Art 67(1) (Pesticides, invasive plants, waste, fuel and towing: the rules for the work)
- Form AqHerb01 and guidance (Pesticides, invasive plants, waste, fuel and towing: the rules for the work)
- Herbicide guidance (Aug 2016) (Pesticides, invasive plants, waste, fuel and towing: the rules for the work)
- NAP 2025 (Pesticides, invasive plants, waste, fuel and towing: the rules for the work)
- s.211(3) (Who must sign off and deliverables in house style)
- regs 31 and 36(6) (Who must sign off and deliverables in house style)
- www.legislation.gov.uk (Who must sign off and deliverables in house style)
- When you must register (Who must sign off and deliverables in house style)
- Waste duty of care code of practice, records (Who must sign off and deliverables in house style)
- Certificates of competence: grandfather rights (Pitfalls that embarrass the product)
- Excise Notice 75 sections 2, 3.5, 6, 7.9 to 7.11, 13 and 14 (Pitfalls that embarrass the product)
- GOV.UK licence rules for Great Britain; nidirect Northern Ireland licence rules (Pitfalls that embarrass the product)
- What you can and cannot do (Pitfalls that embarrass the product)
- Appendix Skilled Occupations, SOC 5113 (Pitfalls that embarrass the product)
- s.1(1)(b) (Pitfalls that embarrass the product)