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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure that bee habitats are monitored and that bees can and do pollinate.

We are taking action both to improve the status of bees and provide feeding and nesting habitat.

We have established a pollinator monitoring and research partnership with research institutes and volunteer organisations to gather further data and improve our understanding of the status of pollinators in the UK.

We are also working with farmers, business and conservation organisations to provide pollinator habitat on farmland, in urban areas and in gardens. On farmland, we have introduced a Pollinator and Wildlife Package to our Countryside Stewardship Scheme in England, to provide year-round habitat such as flower-rich field margins.

Forty percent of all 2016 Countryside Stewardship Mid-Tier agreements are delivering the Pollinator and Farm Wildlife Package. Our monitoring for Countryside Stewardship gathers additional data on the benefits of these agreements for pollinators.