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

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the damaging effect, in particular on sugar beet crops, of pesticides used to prevent attacks from aphids.

Emerging sugar beet seedlings and young plants are vulnerable to feeding by aphids, which transmit several viruses, known collectively as Yellows Virus (YV). Neonicotinoid seed treatments provide emerging beet crops with highly effective protection.

Following an application made by British Sugar and the National Farmers Union, the Government has granted an emergency authorisation for the limited and controlled use of a neonicotinoid seed treatment on the 2023 sugar beet crop. This decision has not been taken lightly and is based on robust assessment of the environmental and economic risks and benefits. The Government’s statement of reasons for this decision has been published on gov.uk.

It is important that the Government understands the potential environmental impacts of the emergency authorisation. To further develop that understanding the applicant is required to carry out a range of environmental monitoring activities as a condition of the emergency authorisation. The Government is supplementing these activities with its own monitoring projects. These projects include the monitoring of residues of thiamethoxam (the neonicotinoid active ingredient in the authorised seed treatment) and its metabolite, clothianidin, in various parts of the environment, to gain a better understanding of the potential exposure of non-target organisms to the active substance in the seed treatment. This includes the soil of treated fields; the soil, vegetation and pollen from field margins; honey from honeybee hives in close proximity to sugar beet fields; and rivers in sugar beet catchments. Further detail of these projects can be found within the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) emergency registration report on Cruiser SB, published on gov.uk.

Defra has also funded a study assessing the chronic toxicity of thiamethoxam to adult honeybees. This has allowed HSE to conduct a robust assessment of the chronic risks to honeybees via different routes of exposure. Details and results of this study can be found within HSE’s emergency registration report, published on gov.uk.