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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will list the dates on which her Department has identified the UK presence of the Colorado beetle since January 2021.

Since January 2021, Colorado Beetle has been detected in the UK on the following occasions:

15/06/21– Single adult beetle in a domestic garden in Leicestershire, assessed as a transient finding with no evidence of breeding/populations.

19/10/21– Single adult beetle on carrots in a local produce market, assessed as a transient finding with no evidence of breeding/populations.

11/07/23 – Larvae in a potato field in Kent.

14/07/23 - Single adult beetle in a domestic garden in Hampshire, assessed as a transient finding with no evidence of breeding/populations.

11/08/23 - Single adult beetle within 1km of the potato field in Kent, no evidence of breeding/populations, but included as part of the eradication programme for the 11/07/23 finding.