The first ever UK Rodenticide Stewardship report has been published, and tackles issues involved with reducing rodenticide residues in non-target wildlife.

The chairman of the Campaign for Responsible Rodenticide Use (CRRU), Dr Alan Buckle, said that the report was the "end of the begging", but there was still much left to be done.

As a pre-stewardship benchmark a knowledge, attitude and practice survey was conducted independently in August 2015.

This survey will be repeated periodically, in conjunction with data on secondary poisoning, point-of-sale monitoring, training uptake, user competence and rodenticide resistance.

Dr Buckle said: "The regime provides a robust system to control rodenticide availability and develop universal and permanent responsible use.

"The report identifies significant work carried out so far, and emphasises that much remains to be done. Clearly, the regime is in its early stages.

"If stewardship achieves it purpose, with compelling evidence that professional rodenticides can be used without unacceptable effects on the environment, the products will remain available for our use.

"Otherwise, we must anticipate further restrictions on where rodenticides can be used and by whom."

The annual report can be downloaded from thinkwildlife.org, where full details of the UK Rodenticide Stewardship Regime are also available.