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 24 April 2017 to Question 71069, how many emergency authorisation applications for the use of neonicotinoid pesticides the Government has approved in the last (a) 12 and (b) 24 months.

Three neonicotinoids are currently subject to restrictions which normally prohibit their use on a number of crops. Two emergency authorisations have been granted for the use of these restricted neonicotinoids. Those authorisations, issued in July 2015, allowed limited and controlled use on oilseed rape until November 2015. In total, eight applications for use of the same neonicotinoids have been turned down between 2015 and 2017. All decisions are made on the basis of advice from the independent UK Expert Committee on Pesticides.