Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether data collected by countries which are members of the Drone Subgroup of the OECD Working Party on Pesticides provides a sufficient basis to accelerate the use of drones to spray regulated chemicals such as herbicides in the UK.

The government’s work with the OECD‘s Working Party for Pesticides Drone Subgroup has enabled it to get a better understanding of the specific risks associated with the application of pesticides by drone, particularly around spray drift and operator exposure, and this work is continuing. The Health and Safety Executive, as the UK pesticides regulator, will use this understanding together with any additional data and information when considering applications for the authorisation of pesticides deployed by drone technology.