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

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the occurrence of the small hive beetle in Europe, what plans they have to ban the import of honey bee queens from Italy.

Small hive beetle was first detected in Europe in 2014, in the far south of Italy, and safeguard measures have been maintained by the Italian authorities since then. While further cases have occurred in the same area in subsequent years, Small hive beetle has not been detected outside the far south of Italy.

Exports of honey bees from the affected region of Italy are not permitted. The Government has no plans to ban imports of honey bee queens from unaffected regions of Italy.