Neonicotinoids

(asked on 15th April 2021) - View Source

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, for what reason the Health and Safety Executive risk assessment for the application for emergency use of the neonicotinoid thiamethoxam on sugar beet was based on industry studies and did not examine evidence from independent scientific studies.


Answered by
Victoria Prentis Portrait
Victoria Prentis
Attorney General
This question was answered on 23rd April 2021

Any consideration of possible authorisation of a pesticide, including emergency authorisation, starts from the information provided by the applicant. Those carrying out the risk assessment will also draw on their wider knowledge. In this case, the assessment carried out by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for Cruiser SB took account of an earlier assessment by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).

The EFSA work considered honeybees, bumblebees and solitary bees, although the available data mostly relates to honeybees. HSE’s assessment considered the risks from residues of thiamethoxam in the soil being taken up by flowering plants attractive to bees in future years. The assessment focussed on following crops such as oilseed rape, which have a greater potential to expose bees than wildflowers in field margins.

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