Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs written question – answered at on 13 February 2026.
Jayne Kirkham
Labour/Co-operative, Truro and Falmouth
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress the VMD has made with its roadmap to help address the presence of chemicals from pet flea and tick treatments in UK waterways.
Emma Hardy
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) leads the cross‑government Pharmaceuticals in the Environment (PiE) Group and is taking forward a programme of work to address the presence of chemicals from pet flea and tick treatments in UK waterways. In response to detections of fipronil and imidacloprid above toxicity thresholds for aquatic invertebrates, the VMD published a roadmap setting out planned actions.
Progress includes holding the first PiE stakeholder workshop in Summer 2025, commissioning research on pet owner behaviours and exposure modelling, and working with environment agencies to improve monitoring data consistency. The VMD is also undertaking an evidence‑based review of the legal distribution categories for products containing these substances and contributing to international work to consider updates to environmental risk assessment approaches.
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