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 reasons for the decline in the bee population.

In 2014 Defra published independent research on the status of pollinators in the UK. This showed an overall decline in wild bee diversity, a major cause of which has been the loss of flower-rich habitat driven by changes in agricultural land use and urbanisation.

Our National Pollinator Strategy highlights the vital contribution we can all make, from farmers to window box gardeners, to support pollinators by ensuring they have food and a home.