Our Biosecurity Policy

Understanding the threat from notifiable plant pests and diseases

This policy demonstrates our commitment to biosecurity and shall apply to all relevant operations and members of staff at Kingsdown Nurseries. We are fully aware of the acute threat that the damage of notifiable plant pests and diseases can cause, and the important role in protecting  both our business and the wider environment. Subsequently we have set forth a set of precautions that aim to prevent the introduction and spread of these notifiable pests and diseases.

• We will manage our operations to keep the possibility of introducing or spreading any harmful organisms to an absolute minimum.

• We will conduct an up to date, business specific Site and Operations Pest Risk Analysis (SOPRA) to minimise plant biosecurity risks to an appropriate level.

• We will keep up to date with all relevant plant health legislation and best practise guidance, by receiving relevant newsletters from the local plant health authority.

Kingsdown Nurseries approach to plant health and biosecurity

As a business we will ensure our supply chain is robust and we only source products from reputable, accredited nurseries. We will maintain and seek to continually improve our own operations to work to industry good practise and biosecurity practises.

By conducting a thorough and comprehensive Site and Operations Pest Risk Analysis, (SOPRA) we will establish where the risks to our biosecurity are.  Having established this, we will act accordingly to mitigate these through using a set of precautionary measures, such as inspections, crop walks etc. This will be recorded and reviewed annually, as well as being updated as and when any pertinent information is received from the plant health authority regarding new or upgraded pests and diseases.

We will keep up to date with the UK Plant Health Risk Register and any applicable government guidance.  We receive notifications from the plant health authority and DEFRA newsletters via email and ensure that these are regularly monitored and acted upon. The newsletters are disseminated through the company to the appropriate personnel.

All relevant staff will be trained and made aware of their appropriate roles and the biosecurity practises to follow. Staff will be trained by specific in-house training both in practical situations, and via a plant biosecurity powerpoint (including notifiable pests and diseases) Posters of the relevant notifiable pests and diseases will be displayed in the working office, and in addition to this an easily accessible and user-friendly file will be made available of relevant plant pests using

plant health authority produced fact sheets.

The aforementioned Powerpoint will be communicated to any new appropriate employees or volunteers, following which a form will be signed and dated to acknowledge they have viewed and understood it, with records kept accordingly. Any new pests and diseases flagged up by DEFRA updates will be communicated to appropriate employees.

We will ensure that if/when any external parties require our plant biosecurity policy, this will be communicated via our website as a downloadable attachment. See below.

Elements of this policy that apply to persons visiting our site regarding hygiene rules will be communicated by on-site signage.