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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the bee population in each year since 2010.

Each year, the Government publishes an indicator of trends in populations of wild bees and other pollinators in the UK, measuring changes in the distribution of almost 400 pollinating insect species since 1980, including 137 species of bees. The indicator shows an overall long term decline since 1980. However, from 2013 onwards, there is evidence of an overall increase in the distribution of bee species, although other insect pollinators have continued to decline.

The National Bee Unit at Defra also maintains a registration system for honey bees and beekeeping in the UK on its ‘BeeBase’ website. Registration is voluntary so it is difficult to provide exact figures on honey bee populations, but it suggests that activity in the beekeeping sector and consequently honey bee numbers are increasing. Colonies recorded on BeeBase increased from 108,649 in 2009 to 212,054 in 2019.

Since 2014 we have been working with a range of partners to implement a National Pollinator Strategy to address declines in wild pollinators and concerns about bee health. This has included establishing a UK-wide pollinator monitoring and research partnership in collaboration with research institutes and volunteer organisations to gather further data on the status of UK pollinators.