For farmers in the United Kingdom

Sprayer inspection in the UK: when your machine is due

6/11/2026

Tractor with a mounted crop sprayer working a grass field at South Farm, Rodmell, East Sussex — Photo: Paul Gillett · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0

In the UK, pesticide application equipment in professional use has to pass an inspection at set intervals. The rules are in the Plant Protection Products (Sustainable Use) Regulations 2012, and the interval depends on the type of machine.

Three years: the larger sprayers

Regulation 11 covers the equipment the law treats as higher risk:

boom sprayers longer than 3 metres, including those mounted on sowing equipment;
vehicle-mounted or trailed sprayers that blow droplets upward and outward on an air stream, the usual orchard and vineyard sprayers;
spraying equipment on trains or aircraft.

New equipment must be inspected before the fifth anniversary of its first purchase. After that, since 26 November 2020, it must be inspected at least every three years.

Six years: most other equipment

Regulation 12 covers the rest of the professional equipment, for example boom sprayers of 3 metres or less. Here too the first inspection is due before the fifth anniversary of purchase, and then at least once every six years.

Handheld equipment and knapsack sprayers are outside regulation 12.

Who inspects

The Health and Safety Executive names the Agricultural Engineers Association as the body designated to run the inspection scheme for Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and HSE monitors that it works as the rules require.

How not to miss the date

Note the date of the last inspection next to your spray records and count forward three or six years, depending on the machine. If someone checks your farm, the inspection certificate and the spray records are what they will ask to see.

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Official sources

Checked on 6/11/2026

Spraying in the UK: who needs a certificate, and when supervision is enough