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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 12 March 2020 to Question 26166, what assessment he has made of the reasons for the increase in bee colonies since 2009.

In 2009 the Government launched the Healthy Bees Plan. The plan’s aim was to achieve a sustainable and healthy population of managed honey bees in England and Wales via strengthened partnership working between Government and beekeeping stakeholders.

The first stage included a drive to increase our knowledge of the number and location of honey bee colonies. This meant promoting the benefits to beekeepers of registering their managed honey bee colonies on the National Bee Unit’s voluntary website, BeeBase. Since 2009 the number of colonies in England and Wales recorded on BeeBase has increased from 108,649 to 212,054 in 2019. However, some of this increase will be due to new registrations of existing beekeepers rather than entirely made up of new colonies or beekeepers.

Knowing the location of beekeepers and their honey bee colonies has improved our ability to manage bee pests and diseases, raising husbandry standards through the sharing of best practice. In addition to better recording of colony numbers, it is thought beekeeping itself has also seen a revival with respondents to a recent Government survey indicating that pleasure, production of honey and conservation were important reasons for taking up the craft.