The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) administers a permits scheme that allows for the legal use of chemicals in certain ways that are contrary to the label instructions, or in certain circumstances allows for the limited use of an unregistered chemical product.

The statutory criteria that must be satisfied in order for the APVMA to issue a permit is similar to an active constituent approval or a product registration. We need to be satisfied that:

  • the application requirements have been met
  • any additional information that has been requested from you has been provided
  • for an active constituent – that the constituent would meet the safety criteria
  • for a chemical product – that the product would meet the safety criteria, the trade criteria and the efficacy criteria
  • that the proposed use of the active constituent or chemical product (other than for APVMA-initiated permits) is for:
    • a minor use, or
    • an emergency use, or
    • for the purposes of research
  • if an application has not been made for approval of the constituent or registration of the product or such an application has not been determined that there are reasonable grounds for the application not having been made or for issuing the permit pending determination of the application
  • the permit holder can comply with the conditions of the permit
  • within the previous 10 years, the proposed permit holder or any other person who makes or participates in making decisions that affect the whole, or a substantial part, of the proposed permit holder's affairs have not been convicted of certain offences, been ordered to pay a pecuniary penalty for contraventions of certain penalty provisions, or had a permit cancelled in certain situations (this is known as the fit and proper person test)
  • if the permit relates to authorising conduct that would contravene a condition of a manufacturing licence that there are exceptional circumstances that justify issuing the permit.

The legislative instrument for information to be provided with applications sets out the basic information requirements, and the APVMA’s regulatory guidelines assist applicants to understand how to ensure that we can be satisfied on the safety, trade and efficacy criteria.

We maintain the record of permits and publish the details of all permits that do not contain confidential commercial information. The records can be searched using keywords for the permit number, active constituent, pest/purpose, or animal/crop. If you are going to apply for a permit, search the record of permits first to see whether there is an existing permit that you could access.

Technical assessment

An applicant may apply to the APVMA to make a technical assessment to assist the applicant in making a later application for an approval, registration, licence or permit.