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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of trends in the UK bee population since the introduction of the ban on neonicotinoids.

In December 2014, Defra published draft statistics showing long term trends in UK bee populations in our UK and England Biodiversity Indicators. They showed that while some species had become more widespread, a greater number had become less widespread between 1980 and 2010.^[1]

Defra is working with the research community to improve and update this indicator on pollinators. However, there is currently insufficient data to provide an assessment of trends since the introduction of the restrictions on neonicotinoids in December 2013. Moreover, national trends respond to a range of positive and negative pressures in the environment. Targeted field research is more likely to provide evidence on the effects of neonicotinoids and studies of this type are ongoing.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/england-biodiversity-indicators; http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/page-1824