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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what alternatives were considered prior to the Government's decision permit the use of the banned pesticide thiamethoxam on sugar beet in England in 2023.

One of the legal requirements for granting emergency authorisations is that there must be a danger which cannot be contained by any other reasonable means. In the case of the emergency authorisation for Cruiser SB, the “danger” is high levels of yellows viruses, which lead to severe yield losses.

Before granting the emergency authorisation, alternative pesticides and non-pesticide approaches to were considered. It was concluded that these alternative control measures, even when used in combination, were not sufficient to address a dangerous level of virus threat. They were not, therefore, considered to be reasonable means of control.