Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will publish the results of the EU's recent tests on the likely harmful effects to bees of the use of neonicotinoids; and if she will make a statement.

The EU itself does not carry out tests on the effects on bees from the use of neonicotinoid insecticides.It makes decisions on the regulation of neonicotinoids and other pesticides on the basis of scientific information provided by companies working to agreed standards and published scientific studies.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has published scientific opinions on the risks from uses of these pesticides following mandates from the European Commission. EFSA also recently held a consultation calling for data on this matter as the first step in an EU review of controls on these insecticides.The UK is contributing fully to this review.

EFSA documents are published on its website (http://www.efsa.europa.eu/).