The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 is the law most often misunderstood in relation to Japanese knotweed. It does not make having knotweed illegal, but under Schedule 9 it is an offence to plant or otherwise cause it to grow in the wild. Our guide to the law on knotweed explains the distinction, which matters because it means you break no law by having a stand, but you can by allowing or causing it to spread beyond your control.
What does the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 say about knotweed?
Section 14(2) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 makes it an offence to plant or otherwise cause to grow in the wild any plant listed in Schedule 9, Part 2, which includes Japanese knotweed. The key phrase is in the wild: the Act targets causing the plant to establish beyond cultivation, such as by dumping contaminated soil on open land or a roadside. It is a public-law offence about spreading the plant into the wild, distinct from the private nuisance that governs a neighbour dispute.
Is it illegal to have Japanese knotweed?
It is not illegal to have Japanese knotweed growing on your own land, and the Act creates no offence simply for its presence in a garden. What is an offence is causing it to grow in the wild, so the law bites on conduct that spreads it rather than on ownership of a stand. This is a common misunderstanding: a homeowner with knotweed has not broken the law, but must take care not to spread it through careless cutting, disturbance or disposal, which is where liability can arise.
How can you commit an offence with knotweed?
You can commit an offence under the Act by causing knotweed to grow in the wild, for example by fly-tipping cut canes or contaminated soil onto open land, moving rhizome-bearing soil to a site where it establishes, or otherwise allowing it to spread into the wild through disposal or disturbance. Because a fragment regrows, careless handling is enough to cause spread. This connects the Act to the controlled-waste rules, since lawful disposal is how you avoid causing the plant to grow where it should not.
How does this fit with the other knotweed laws?
The Wildlife and Countryside Act sits alongside the Environmental Protection Act 1990, which makes knotweed controlled waste, and the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, which lets a council serve a Community Protection Notice on a spreading stand. Together they mean having knotweed is lawful, but spreading it, disposing of it wrongly, or letting it affect a neighbour can all carry consequences. Our guide to fines sets out where a penalty can actually arise across these overlapping rules.
Common questions
- Can I be prosecuted just for having knotweed?
- No. The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 does not make having knotweed an offence. Prosecution relates to causing it to grow in the wild, such as by dumping contaminated material, not to a stand on your own land.
- Does cutting my own knotweed break the Act?
- Cutting a stand on your own land is not itself an offence, but you must not let the operation spread the plant into the wild or dispose of the material unlawfully, which is where liability under this and other laws can arise.
- What does "in the wild" mean?
- In the wild broadly means outside cultivation, such as open countryside, verges or waste ground. Causing knotweed to establish there, typically through dumping or moving contaminated soil, is what the Act treats as an offence.