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 the potential change in the bee population of the decision to allow the use of neonicotinoid pesticides; and what assessment she has made of the effect of such a change on agricultural yields.

Neonicotinoid insecticides have been used for a number of years to protect a wide range of crops. Since December 2013, some of those uses have no longer been allowed. European rules on pesticides allow the limited and controlled use of restricted neonicotinoids in emergency situations to control a danger which cannot be contained by any other reasonable means.

An application to use neonicotinoids to protect an area equivalent to 5% of the national oilseed rape crop was accepted following expert advice. The UK Expert Committee on Pesticides considered all the relevant environmental and agronomic factors, including effects on bees and the value of the products in safeguarding crop yields. The Committee’s advice to Ministers can be found at www.pesticides.gov.uk/guidance/industries/pesticides/advisory-groups/acp/ECP-letters.

Ministers followed the Committee’s advice on the basis that the legal criteria for granting the authorisations were met.