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

To ask His Majesty's Government what action they are taking to support the bee population.

Recovering nature is a priority for this Government, which is why we have set legally binding targets to halt and then reverse the decline in species abundance, reduce the risk of species extinction and restore or create more than 500,000 hectares of wildlife-rich habitats. Action under the Environmental Improvement Plan to deliver our biodiversity targets will address key pressures impacting pollinators including habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation, use of some pesticides, climate change and land use intensification.

Our 2014 National Pollinator Strategy sets out a 10-year plan to help pollinators survive and thrive. It delivers action across four themes: strengthening evidence; restoring habitats and species; sustaining pollinator health; and engaging wider society. A Defra-led working group is considering future priorities for pollinators beyond 2024.

Agri-environment schemes are a key mechanism for recovering bees and other pollinators, in particular through the ‘Wild Pollinator and Farm Wildlife Package’. Between 2014 and 2019, an estimated 30,000ha of bee-friendly habitat was delivered through this scheme.

We have also collaborated with research institutes and volunteer organisations to set up the Pollinator Monitoring and Research Partnership to improve our understanding of pollinators and pollination services, and raised the profile of pollinators through our annual Bees’ Needs Week, which raises awareness of key actions we can all take to protect pollinators. Bees’ Needs Week 2024 will run from 8-14 July.

Defra supports the honey bee population specifically through the work of the National Bee Unit inspectorate, which operates our bee pest surveillance programmes and provides free training and advice to beekeepers, including on pest and disease recognition. While bee health is a devolved matter, Defra and the Welsh Government work together on bee health and, in 2020, we jointly published the Healthy Bees Plan 2030 (copy attached).