Policy paper

NAP target explainer: a detailed explanation of the Pesticides NAP target and how it will be achieved

Published 21 March 2025

The UK Pesticides National Action Plan (NAP) 2025 sets a domestic reduction target for pesticides in the UK. This document explains what our target is and why it was chosen, presents the initial progress made, and looks at what more needs to be done to achieve it.

The NAP target

In the NAP, we are setting a minimum domestic target to reduce each of the arable UK Pesticide Load Indicator (UK PLI) metrics by at least 10% by 2030, taking figures for 2018 as a baseline.

The NAP target is based on pesticide usage in the arable agricultural sector. Arable farming accounts for around 85% to 90% of total pesticide use in UK agriculture and horticulture. It is where we have the most reliable data, and the UK PLI has been designed and tested extensively on arable data. We are currently working on calculating the UK PLI for the other agricultural pesticide surveys conducted as part of the Pesticide Usage Survey (for example, soft fruit, orchards, edible protected crops), but these do not currently form part of the target. Read our latest research on this work. We do not currently have robust data on pesticide usage in the amenity and amateur sectors, so these are not considered in the PLI, but the NAP commits to secure more comprehensive information about the nature of pesticide use in these sectors.

Importantly, the target will be kept under review. We will be led by the evidence, and we will regularly review progress against the target. We will consider whether the scope and target level need to be adjusted to ensure we are capturing the most complete picture of pesticide pressure on the environment possible, and ensure the target continues to maintain a stretching level of ambition.

The aim of the target

The aim of the target is to help the government understand whether we are meeting our ambition to minimise the risks of pesticides in the environment. It should give assurance that we are acting responsibly and sustainably in our effort to reduce the environmental risk from pesticides, whilst maintaining the competitiveness of UK agriculture.

The target has been designed to be achievable, based on the ambitious set of actions outlined in the NAP, along with actions already underway. For example, the financial incentives for taking up integrated pest management (IPM) approaches, which were offered through the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) scheme. The target does not impose any new restrictions or requirements on farmers. However, reaching the target will not be easy and will require sustained action by all 4 UK governments, industry and land managers.

The domestic pesticides reduction target set in the NAP will also contribute to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) Target 7, agreed at COP15, to reduce the overall risks from pesticides and highly hazardous chemicals by at least half by 2030. We are fully committed to the targets agreed in Montreal. UK diplomatic leadership was critical to agreeing the framework and we will continue to champion the framework’s implementation.

The GBF target is a shared one, and individual countries will be starting from different baseline positions in making their contributions to the overall global target of 50%. Looking over the past 30 years, the UK has already made good progress towards reducing the use of pesticides, relative to the rest of the world. Whilst the total weight of pesticide active substance applied in agriculture increased globally by around 90% between 1990 and 2020, the UK saw a near 60% decrease over the same period. But we can still do more. This is why we have set a UK pesticides reduction target in the NAP.

The GBF target is not proposed to be measured by the UK PLI. It will therefore not be possible to directly equate change in the UK PLI to progress towards the GBF target. The indicator for the GBF target must be agreed and calculated before the UK’s progress can be assessed. Achieving our domestic PLI-based target will provide a credible contribution to the overall GBF target.

The UK also supported the development and agreement of a new Global Framework on Chemicals (GFC). This includes targets to phase out highly hazardous pesticides in agriculture and implement policies and programmes to increase support to safer, more sustainable agricultural practices, which the NAP will help achieve.

How the target will be measured

The target will be measured using the UK Pesticide Load Indicator (UK PLI). This indicator was originally based on the Danish PLI but has been adapted for the UK context. It has been developed over a number of years by a team of experts in the field, had input from expert working groups, and has been through independent peer-review.

The UK PLI does not quantify harm or reflect environmental outcomes, as it does not account for any mitigation practices or calculate exposure of real wildlife populations. It also does not have a focus on human health. Instead, the aim of the PLI is to illustrate trends in the potential pressure on the environment arising from the use of pesticides.

To achieve this, the UK PLI combines data on pesticide usage with information on pesticide properties, such as how harmful they are to different wildlife groups and the way they behave in the environment. It consists of four environmental fate metrics (covering behaviour in the environment such as how quickly pesticides break down) and 16 ecotoxicity metrics (covering pesticide toxicity to non-target wildlife such as bees and fish). These 20 metrics are designed around the standard regulatory tests for approval of active substances and are quantified according to a rigorous scientific methodology. The data used to calculate the PLI comes from the UK Pesticide Usage Survey (PUS) and the Pesticide Properties Database (PPDB).

The PLI considers the acute (short-term) and chronic (long-term) toxicity of individual active substances to a range of organisms that are not the pesticide’s intended targets. The acute metrics focus on the dose or concentration of pesticide that causes death after short-term exposure. The chronic metrics focus on the dose or concentration of pesticide below which no harm is observed in each indicator species and are assessed using important measures of health such as growth and reproduction. Read the published detailed methodology for the UK PLI for more information on the different metrics and how the UK PLI has been developed over time.

By using the UK PLI, our target takes account of the chemical properties of pesticides being used. It means we are measuring changes in the potential pressures being placed on the environment from pesticide use over time, rather than just changes in the quantity of pesticides being used.

Why this target has been chosen

To be effective, the target is based on quantifiable outcomes and has been designed to be stretching, measurable and time bound.

We need to set a target that indicates real, but sustainable, change. Setting an ambitious target could act as a catalyst for innovation and improvement, but a target also needs to be achievable to be effective. If it is unrealistic, the target could lead to demotivation and will not be an effective tool to encourage action. We believe the target we have chosen is proportionate, striking the right balance between ambition and achievability.

The target considers the individual UK PLI metrics, rather than a single overall indicator of pesticide load. It ensures we are focused on driving action across the breadth of the metrics rather than, for example, making progress on reducing potential harm to fish but not paying attention to bees.

We want to achieve the target by 2030. This end point has been chosen to align with the proposed Target 7 under the Global Biodiversity Framework. Due to the frequency of pesticide usage surveys, the UK PLI has currently been calculated every two years starting from 2010 through to 2022. We have chosen 2018 as the baseline year for the target because this was a relatively typical year for pesticide usage. It also gives at least a 10-year timespan over which to assess progress to 2030. We avoided using 2020 as the baseline as this was a year in which pesticide usage was substantially lower than all previous years, due mainly to challenging weather conditions affecting cropping patterns. Therefore, using 2020 would not be an appropriate reference point to understand the PLI’s direction of travel.

We know that pesticide usage is influenced by factors such as weather, which will impact the crops grown as well as the levels of different pests, weeds and diseases seen in a particular year. As was seen in 2020, this can lead to substantial fluctuations in pesticide usage between years that will subsequently be reflected in the UK PLI (see Figure 1). As such, in future reporting we will present progress towards the target (assessed by point-to-point comparisons between specific years) in the context of overall trends, so that we take account of these fluctuations.

These trends can be seen in Figure 1, which shows the change in load for each of the 20 UK PLI metrics between 2010 and 2022. This is the full timespan for which we currently have PLI data available. The metrics show varying trends, which reflect the differing properties of the pesticides used in the UK and the changing use of these pesticides over time. Read the latest published UK PLI data report for more information.

Figure 1 . Trends in the UK Pesticide Load Indicator (UK PLI)

Figure 1 shows trends in the 20 metrics comprising the UK PLI for arable cropping from 2010 to 2022. Values are expressed as percentage (%) change relative to 2010. Shading around the trend lines reflect the 90% confidence interval.

The source data for Figure 1 is available in Annex 1 of the PLI Phase 5 report, produced by Fera Science Ltd and the University of Hertfordshire on behalf of Defra.

Current progress towards the NAP target

Figure 2 shows the change observed for each of the 20 PLI metrics between 2018 (the target baseline year) and 2022 (the latest year we have data for). We are already seeing good progress towards the target, due to a number of high-risk pesticides having been withdrawn in recent years, coupled with a general reduction in pesticide usage since 2018.

Out of the 20 PLI metrics, 16 have shown a mean reduction of 10% or more between 2018 and 2022.

The pesticide usage data used to calculate the UK PLI comes from the Pesticide Usage Survey. This data comes from a sample of holdings and therefore, when estimating national and regional values, there is a level of uncertainty associated with these estimates. When assessing progress towards the NAP target, it is important to account for this uncertainty. This uncertainty is displayed in Figure 2 by the error bars , which represent the 90% confidence interval. We would assess that there is a 90% probability that the true value for each metric falls between the bars. 

Out of the 20 PLI metrics, 12 have shown a mean reduction of 10% or more between 2018 and 2022 and have a 90% confidence interval that lies entirely above a 10% reduction. For these 12 metrics, we can therefore have higher confidence that load has reduced by at least 10% between 2018 and 2022. 

Only one metric, which considers toxicity to parasitic wasps, has shown an increase in load between 2018 and 2022 (although there is a high degree of uncertainty in this estimate). The scale of the increase demonstrates some of the challenges in achieving the NAP target for all metrics, as the composition of pesticides used over time changes with changes in pesticide authorisation and use.

Figure 2. Change in the UK PLI between 2018 and 2022

The chart shows the percentage (%) change in each of the 20 UK PLI metrics between 2018 (the NAP target baseline) and 2022 (the latest year that PLI data is available). The solid bars show the best estimate of change between these years, and the error bars indicate the 90% confidence interval.

Figure 2 shows a wide range of results across the PLI metrics. These vary from a reduction of more than 90% for bees (oral), to an increase of almost 50% for parasitic wasps, over the same period. Of the 20 metrics, all showed some reduction in pesticide load, apart from parasitic wasps.

Table 1. Change in the UK PLI between 2018 and 2022: source data

Table 1 provides the source data used for Figure 2.

Indicator	Mean change in PLI	90% confidence interval - low	90% confidence interval - high
Bees — oral	–98	–103	–92
Bees — contact	–81	–88	–73
Birds — chronic	–59	–64	–53
Fish — acute	–47	–52	–42
Mammals — chronic	–41	–46	–35
Birds — acute	–38	–57	–19
Daphnia — chronic	–35	–45	–24
Predatory mites	–28	–39	–16
Fish — chronic	–27	–38	–17
Earthworms — acute	–26	–30	–22
Mammals — acute	–22	–34	–10 (rounded up)
Daphnia — acute	–18	–28	–9
Earthworms — chronic	–16	–20	–12
Bioconcentration factor	–12	–16	–9
Groundwater mobility	–12	–15	–10 (rounded down)
Drain flow	–10	–13	–7
Aquatic plants	–9	–14	–4
Soil persistence	–8	–11	–6
Algae	–3	–9	0
Parasitic wasps	45	0	112

How the target will be achieved

We have seen good progress so far, but there is still a lot to do to achieve the target. For the metrics that have not seen a reduction by at least 10% between 2018 and 2022, substantial reductions in pesticide load will be essential. However, action is not limited to these metrics. Just because several of the PLI metrics are in a strong position now, this does not mean they will automatically stay that way. Once a metric shows a 10% reduction over a given time period, that is not ‘job done’, as the PLI metrics can go up as well as down. Indeed, the longer-term trends in the PLI (see Figure 1) highlight that the metrics can show strong fluctuations over time. Changing future conditions, such as climate change, evolving pesticide resistance, and increasing pest pressures, will make it challenging to keep the PLI at low levels.

Supporting the transition to non-chemical alternatives for pest control will need to be a collective effort. The NAP outlines a set of actions that the government will take, which will mean that everyone who manages our land can have the confidence to make the change to more sustainable options, whilst knowing they can still manage pests effectively. Through sustained action by government, industry, land managers, and wider stakeholders, we believe that we can see a general reduction in pesticide use over time, and particularly a reduction in the most harmful pesticides, which will facilitate this target being achieved.

Given that the arable Pesticide Usage Survey is biennial, and there can be a lag of up to one to 2 years in receiving and processing the results, the next update of the arable UK PLI will likely not be until 2026. This will allow a more detailed assessment of UK-wide progress to be undertaken and reported. Throughout the lifetime of the NAP, we will regularly assess progress against the target. Progress is not limited to a 10% reduction across each PLI metric, it’s just the minimum we want to see. We will regularly review the available evidence to assess whether the minimum target level should be adjusted to maintain a stretching level of ambition.

Importantly, the target should not be viewed in isolation. Alongside the headline target, based on the UK PLI, we also plan to continue reporting against a broader framework of action- and outcome-based indicators, which will support the monitoring, evaluating, and guiding of NAP initiatives. We will publish biennial reports on results of the indicator monitoring, including progress against PLI targets.