Ben Lindley, Company Director at Japanese Knotweed Ltd.
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We spoke to Daniel Docking, Technical Manager of the Property Care Association (PCA) about the role the organisation plays in ensuring best practice and compliance within the invasive weed industry.
Daniel explores the synergy between the PCA and its members, why this matters to customers and how the PCA keeps a tight control on memberships to maintain industry standards and reputation. He provides insights to the future of weed management, some recent innovations being trialled and why Glyphosate will still be around for a while to come. Lastly, in this fireside chat we discover Daniel’s favourite invasive plants!
TRANSCRIPT
The Daniel Docking interview
15 July 2025, 09:34am
Ross Cheeseright
Hello there. I’m Ross Cheeseright from Japanese Knotweed Ltd and joining me today is Daniel Docking the Technical Manager from the Property Care Association. Thank you for joining me today Daniel. How are you?
Daniel Docking
I’m not too bad. Thank you. How about yourself?
Ross Cheeseright
Very well. Like most people, I’m either wilting or enjoying the summer heat. I’ve got some burning questions for you today. It’s very easy I think for a customer or a business to visit a website and be bombarded with all these accreditations. And obviously I don’t think people realise how critical they are and what they can mean when you’re picking somebody to work with.
So I wanted to dive a little bit more into what the Property Care Association does and what your role is there so people can gain a better understanding of these accreditations and why they matter.
They’re not just there to show people here’s another bell or whistle, but they actually have some weight. Could you briefly tell me what it is that the PCA does and about your role is as Technical Manager.
Daniel Docking
The Property Care Association or PCA as we call it is one of UKs leading trade associations for professionals involved in a variety of different sectors. They cover structural, waterproofing, timber, damp control, ground gas and of course, invasive non-native plants. I am the technical manager specialising in invasive non-native plants however I am going for a learning process myself and I’m going to be expanding out into the timber and damp section.
So a little bit about what we do is we audit our PCA members. We make sure they are operating to a high standard, but we collaborate a lot with other trade bodies, other associations including the Amenity Forum.
We also engage with government stakeholders for example Defra and the Non-Native Species Secretariat (NNSS), to try and help raise awareness, influence policies and support national strategies. Myself and Sarah, who’s the CEO are active participants in consultations and technical working groups. This ensures that our members are aligned with evolving regulations and best practice.
Ross Cheeseright
That covers a lot. And I can see that the organisation has weight in what it does to ensure those kinds of standards and having those relationships with other bodies.
But when it comes down to the customer, how does that benefit them?
Daniel Docking
I think probably one of the most important things is accountability. So when we’re looking for a PCA member, they are held accountable to what they do, whether it’s a standard which we produce with our code of practices or whether it’s an ethical standard, which all our contractors are bound by. Our code of ethics includes they’ve got to be honest and transparent with what they’re reporting. They can’t mislead customers or provide false information or exaggerate what they’re doing. It comes back down to accountability and financial stability.
Part and parcel of what we do for all companies when they first come in is they get audited. And that’s really important to make sure that these are companies who are within the Property Care Association, the members, they’re not these pop up companies who just jump up, put out a load of bad information and try and take your money and then disappear a year down the line. We have quite strict procedures, and accountability is the most important thing.
Ross Cheeseright
That makes sense. So the customer is getting an extra layer of protection for themselves if they are working with somebody who is a PCA accredited provider.
So if I could just ask in that vein, what is it that the PCA is looking for in a knotweed contractor in order to approve them as a PCA member to make sure that they’re credible?
Daniel Docking
If a new company wants to become a member, there’s a two-part process which they must go through. The first is financial checks – they’ve got to be trading profitably for at least two years. And then they have an initial desk assessment – they will send reports into us where we can physically check they are up to the standard we’d expect.
All of this is highlighted within our code of practice with our exemplar report, which we provide to people and once we’ve gone through that initial process then they’ll have a full in depth technical audit, which would involve myself or one of our regional board officers attend site, so we’ll go to the head office or wherever one of the main offices are and we will check all of their procedures, health and safety policies and employee contracts.
Basic things like cost assessments. I say basic, it’s not basic, it’s checking the nitty gritty stuff, making sure everything is correct and in place. We’ll go through and check chemical stores, obviously as part of invasive non-native plant remediation chemicals is probably one of the key tools which we have in our arsenal. Then we go out on to site with them and this must be an active site, so it’s not something they’ve done a couple of years ago and there’s nothing for us to see.
We want to turn up onto a construction site where they’re digging an invasive plant out or conducting a herbicide visit. So it’s that real nitty gritty stuff we want to see because once again, we want to make sure that everyone who comes into membership can hold their own and really knows their stuff. Every company within the PCA must have a qualified surveyor. Different sectors have different qualifications, but regards to the invasive weeds, any knotweed company or invasive weed company must have a certified surveyor in Japanese knotweed (CSJK).
That’s one of our benchmark criteria’s which these companies must have.
Ross Cheeseright
So you’re really setting a high standard with those checks and making sure that everybody who is in the PCA is adhering to those standards so that you know the the reputation of the organisation is sound and customers can be confident that they are going to be working with somebody who is a high standard.
Daniel Docking
Yes. And these standards don’t just stop at the initial entry into the PCA Every member has to go for a biannual audit. We go out every two years and it’s the same process again, we check the nitty gritty, we check reports and make sure that everything is correct and they are adhering to the code of practices. Everything from writing styles to whether the legislation is correct or whether monitoring periods for different invasive plants are being adhered to.
Then we go back onto site with them. We’ll check all their stores and their health and safety policies and their operating procedures. So it’s an ongoing process until the company decides they no longer want to be a PCA member.
Ross Cheeseright
That sounds like it would be a bad decision! You speak about this ongoing relationship where the quality and status is maintained, which is brilliant. What guidance does the PCA provide to the knotweed contractor members to help keep that quality high?
Daniel Docking
So in regard to technical documents, we have two separate layers. We have our code of practices, one specifically for Japanese knotweed, which was created many moons ago when the industry first started. But actually, as the industry has evolved, we’ve now created an invasive non-native plant code of practise which is a little bit more broader because companies like yourself and other members are not just dealing with Japanese knotweed, there’s a broad spectrum of plants.
And these kind of practices really outline the minimum standards of what we would expect a contractor to adhere to beyond the code of practices. We have guidance documents which outline what we expect Members to be doing, however they are a little bit more less official, such as our latest document just released is a guidance note on the safe transportation of herbicides. And ensuring that members are kept up to date on legislation and are aware of everything to do with these processes is key. We completely understand that especially within the busy periods it can be hard to keep track on changing legislation and updates or best practices and this is what we do. We’re here to collect that information and give it to all our members to make sure that they are kept up to date. We have set meetings each year exclusive to our members to attend where we discuss ongoing situations within the industry and in these meetings, I’m held accountable to any actions agreed to be taken.
Ross Cheeseright
So it’s quite a symbiotic relationship where there’s a bit of back and forward between the companies and the PCA.
Daniel Docking
Yes exactly, everything we do is in the interest of the companies. The more companies that get involved and the more voices we have in these types of meetings, the more transparent we can be and the more we can make sure the industry is going in the right direction. We have weekly newsletters which we send out to all our members giving an update of what we’re doing, and whether there’s anything new coming up within the industry.
For example, there has been a government consultation on landfill tax and we’ve provided an initial response. We’ve put it into our newsletters and it’s up to members to come back to us and say, yes, we support this or no, we don’t. And then we can re rewrite our response to ensure that every voice is being heard.
Ross Cheeseright
That’s great. It’s really a win-win both for the organisations and for the customers, because if everybody is being kept up to date then obviously all that relevant legislation can of course be passed on in the work that they do and the relationships that they have with their customers. That sounds really, it sounds proactive.
Daniel Docking
We also have our international invasive weed conference, which typically runs in November. This is a fantastic opportunity because we have representatives from Europe. We’ve had people from America come in previous years and we get to see new and exciting ideas. For example, we’ve had drone technology being able to go out and identify non-native plants. We’ve had sniffer dogs being able to identify Japanese, knotweed within the ground, which is a limitation of a surveyor who can only see the aerial growth. This is what we showcase at this conference and it’s a fantastic opportunity to engage with other members or stakeholders.
Ross Cheeseright
I’ve been looking into the drone surveys recently. They seem fascinating, utilising artificial intelligence as well to help identify those growth areas and growth patterns of different invasives.
It’s not just about what the current best practices are, it’s also about where things are going and keeping everybody abreast of the latest technologies as well. And on that note, actually I wanted to ask if you see any major changes in how invasive weeds should be controlled in the future or if there are any bigger trends in terms of the way that invasive weeds are changing and adapting.
We talk a lot about global warming and how that might have an impact on invasives because they are of course a lot heartier than some other native species.
Daniel Docking
That’s a really interesting conversation to dive into, obviously with the concerns of glyphosate potentially being banned and or as restricted use.
Ross Cheeseright
That’s a hot topic as well that may be something we need to have another chat. But I might have to bring you back for that one.
Daniel Docking
It is. But that’s where the ideas of other remediation methods really need to come into our forefront but the likelihood of glyphosate being completely banned is probably relatively quite low. I don’t think it changes the situation we’re in and if we were to remove glyphosate or herbicides as one of our key tools, invasive plants are still there and we still have a problem. So we have to be able to adapt and change our remediation.
And there are a few methods out there which have been trialled, for example, the use of electricity on some invasive non-native plants. Unfortunately, what we’re seeing at this point in time is there’s no longevity and there’s no real evidence that other remediated strategies are really working on invasive non-native plants as they are a little hardier than your traditional plants.
We did have a discussion a couple of years ago at the conference with a Dutch company doing some type of soil sterilisation which remediates Japanese knotweed within the soil and as far as I’m aware there are continued studies which are going to be happening this year, but actually the evidence looks like it could be good. And this is the type of R&D stuff which maybe as an industry we need to talk about more and we need to really look at other things.
And because we’ve got to be more sustainable, we can’t just throw everything to landfill.
We are seeing an increase in concerns with invasive bamboos, for example. And it’s the necessity for landowners to take more responsibility of these invasive non-native plants. Traditionally Japanese knotweed has always been an issue, but actually if we look at some of the seeding plants like Himalayan balsam, and Giant hogweed, and if they are in catchment areas or near waterways, streams, rivers, it can cause absolute havoc when the seeds get into the water and they go downstream. It’s that landowner responsibility, which I think is probably going to be a big issue within the next couple of years.
Ross Cheeseright
I think that’s interesting because it goes beyond the commercial aspect and it starts looking more at the environmental impact and the shared responsibility that we have. I would love to see how that evolves in the next couple of years. So just lastly, out of curiosity, if you had to pick one, what would you say is your favourite invasive plant?
Daniel Docking
I’m going to give you a bit of a split answer for this, so I have three in my head. For me one is American skunk cabbage. It’s a lovely looking plant, it looks absolutely amazing and the way it spreads, it’s just a real interesting one. A second one would be Spanish bluebells once again because they are exactly what an invasive non-native plant is. We have our traditional English bluebells and the Spanish bluebells are the same just on steroids. They’re bigger, they’re stronger than our natives and it really encapsulates what an invasive non-native plant is.
But it may sound a little bit cliché, but I’m going to say my number one is Japanese knotweed, there are several reasons. It’s the plant which is the poster boy. It changed our industry, but it’s very misunderstood because online if you were to type in ‘Japanese knotweed’ there are so many stories which are just not true.
So it’s that misunderstanding and misinformation behind it. You ask most people within the knotweed industry we’re not scared of it and I understand maybe that’s because we deal with it on a day-to-day basis and it was the plant which brought me into the industry in the 1st place. Without this plant in particular I wouldn’t be in my position now. So I think my admiration does have to go to knotweed. Probably still has my number one but American skunk, cabbage and Spanish bluebells are very, very close there.
Ross Cheeseright
I that’s one of the interesting things about some of these invasives is that many of them were brought over as ornamental plants for their quality or for their beauty.
Back in the day when we didn’t really understand biosecurity and. And of course they’ve got out of hand now.
I think mine would have to be Himalayan balsam, anything with exploding sea pods. We’ve covered a lot here and it’s been interesting information. So if you wanted to give one key takeaway about the PCA and its role, what would you leave them with?
Daniel Docking
I think the takeaway point for me has really got to be accountability. At the PCA, we hold our members to account of what they should and shouldn’t be doing. I’m held account to the work which I do on behalf of our members, and we hold other people to account, whether we’re working with members, stakeholders or the likes of Defra and the Non-Native Species Secretariat we keep people accountable to make sure they are not spreading lies about the plants and they’re not creating unnecessary fear. But actually we need to be proactive and we need to make sure that when these things happen, we’ve got to jump on board straight away. So that key point of making sure everyone is accountable for their actions.
It’s probably my key take away point.
Ross Cheeseright
Absolutely. So, no cowboys, no snake oil salesman, just honest, accountable work. I love that. Thank you so much, Daniel. It’s been a pleasure speaking with you today. And I look forward to speaking with you again on another interesting and exciting topic another time. Thank you.
Daniel Docking
Thank you for having me.
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