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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Plant Protection Products (Miscellaneous Amendments) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019, whether (a) Regulation (EU) No 485/2013, (b) Regulations (EU) No. 783/784 and 785/2018 and (c) other EU laws banning neonicotinoid use are in force in the UK.

Commission Implementing Regulations 485/2013, 783/2018, 784/2018 and 785/2018 placed restrictions on the approvals of the neonicotinoid active substance clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam and collectively had the effect of prohibiting use of these active substances in certain circumstances. The approvals of these active substances have since lapsed and so all three active substances are not approved for use in pesticide products, either in the EU or in the UK.

The Plant Protection Products (Miscellaneous Amendments) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (the 2019 Regulations) established a GB register of approved active substances and provided that existing EU approvals were carried over. The 2019 Regulations then also revoked the EU legal instruments relating to the approval of a large number of active substances, including the four Commission Implementing Regulations referred to above. The GB register can be viewed on the website of the Health and Safety Executive and records that clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam remain not approved.