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 contribution of farmers and landowners to supporting bees and pollinators.

Farmers and other land managers make a vital contribution to supporting pollinators through management and creation of beneficial habitat features. This is reflected in Defra’s National Pollinator Strategy implementation plan.

Well over one thousand applications for the new Countryside Stewardship Scheme, which funds environmentally beneficial land management, contained the Wild Pollinator and Farm Wildlife Package. As part of our monitoring and evaluation programme, we will assess the effectiveness of the Scheme in supporting bees and other pollinators.