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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the harm that neonicotinoids do to the bee population.

The Government has always been clear that it will be led by the science and will not put the UK’s pollinator populations at risk.

Concerns centre on three neonicotinoids: clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam. The most recent assessment was carried out by the UK Expert Committee on Pesticides last autumn. Its advice to Ministers can be found online:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/658146/ecp-ministers-advice-1710.pdf