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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 18 January 2021 to Questions 137225 and 137226 on Neonicotinoids, whether advice the Government received from the UK Expert Committee on Pesticides on applications for emergency authorisations in (a) 2021, (b) 2018, (c) 2017, (d) 2016 and (e) 2015 has been published.

It has not been the practice of the UK Expert Committee on Pesticides (ECP) to publish the exact text of its advice to Ministers, although its published minutes have always provided a clear view of the Committee’s conclusions. However, in view of the interest in neonicotinoid pesticides, related advice to Ministers from the ECP was published on a total of seven occasions in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018.

As noted in the answer of 18 January 2021 to Questions 137225 and 137226, the ECP’s advice on the application for use in 2021 of the neonicotinoid product Cruiser SB is set out in full in the minutes of the ECP’s 24 November 2020 meeting.