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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to monitor the environmental impact of the use of the product Cruiser SB on sugar beet crops.

If Cruiser SB is used on the 2024 sugar beet crop, the sugar beet industry will be required to carry out a range of environmental monitoring activities as a condition of the emergency authorisation. This will be supplemented by several government-funded monitoring projects.

The overall programme will include the monitoring of residues of thiamethoxam (the active ingredient in Cruiser SB) and its metabolite, clothianidin, in the environment, to gain a better understanding of potential exposure to non-target organisms. This will include monitoring the soil of treated fields; the soil, vegetation, and pollen from field margins; and rivers in sugar beet catchments. Detail of similar monitoring programmes carried out after an emergency authorisation for Cruiser SB was granted in 2023 can be found within the HSE’s emergency registration report on Cruiser SB, published on GOV.UK.