Asked by: Lord Stevenson of Balmacara (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the responses by Lord Benyon on 25 May (HL Deb, cols 890–3), whether the evidence they used to ban the use of neonicotinoid pesticides in 2018 has changed; and, if so, (1) whether this has led to a change of policy, and (2) what plans they have to make any such evidence available as soon as practicable.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The 2018 restrictions on neonicotinoids were justified by the growing weight of scientific evidence that they are harmful to bees and other pollinators. The Government supported these restrictions because we were not prepared to put our pollinator populations at risk.
Our position on these pesticides remains the same. We support the restrictions on neonicotinoids but can consider applications for emergency authorisations.
We will only grant an emergency authorisation where the relevant statutory requirements are met. They will only be granted for limited and controlled use where the product is necessary because of a danger which cannot be contained by any other reasonable means. We will carefully consider any potential risks to humans, animals and the environment, including pollinators.
Asked by: Lord Stevenson of Balmacara (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have plans to take urgent steps to tackle drought, abstraction and pollution relating to the Chilterns Chalk Streams; and whether any such steps will involve putting OFWAT's voluntary abstraction incentive mechanism on a statutory basis.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Environment Agency is working with partners to protect and restore the Chilterns Chalk Streams. Where investigations have shown that levels of abstraction are unsustainable, the Agency works with Affinity Water to reduce pumping.
Since 2016, abstraction for drinking water has been reduced on 5 Chilterns Chalk Streams with further reductions planned by 2025. This will mean that up to 70 million litres of water per day will be kept in the natural environment, improving flows and making the rivers more resilient to drought and periods of prolonged dry weather.
The Government’s strategic policy statement sets a clear objective for Ofwat to challenge companies to further the resilience of ecosystems that underpin water and wastewater systems. We expect Ofwat to challenge business plans that are weak on ecosystem resilience, including their abstraction incentive mechanism (AIM) proposals. From 2016/17, companies are required to report annually on their AIM performance. From 2020, companies will have stronger, financial incentives to improve their AIM performance or risk incurring financial penalties.