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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to require Ministers to allow parliamentary scrutiny of exemptions applied to use of pesticides currently forbidden by retained EU legislation, such as neonicotinoids.

All decisions on the authorisation of pesticides are taken within the legal framework provided by retained EU legislation. This includes the recent emergency authorisation allowing the limited and controlled use of a neonicotinoid seed treatment on the 2023 sugar beet crop. The legal tests for emergency authorisation, the consideration given to each and the resulting decision are detailed in documents published on GOV.UK.