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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to tackle the decline in the bee population.

Defra recognises the importance of pollinators, including bees, and their value to food security and sustaining the natural environment. This is why Defra published the National Pollinator Strategy (NPS) in November 2014 (www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-pollinator-strategy-for-bees-and-other-pollinators-in-england).

The NPS forms a framework for collective action to help manage and raise awareness of the pressures facing pollinators. The strategy seeks to address key gaps in our understanding about the status of pollinators, identifies specific policy and evidence actions for the Government and others, and also identifies actions that everyone can take to help expand food, shelter and nest sites. To raise public awareness a ‘Call to Action’, “Bees’ Needs: Food and a Home” was launched in July 2014 (www.wildlifetrusts.org/Bees-needs). This is a simple message on the essential needs of pollinators and how to fulfil them.