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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will publish the (a) advice sought in reversing the ban on the use of neonicotinoids and (b) any assessments that the Government has undertaken on the impact on (i) bees, (ii) pollination and (iii) food production of the use of those insecticides.

The UK Government continues to support the existing restrictions on the use of neonicotinoids. We will consider emergency authorisations for limited and controlled use in special circumstances where diseases, pests or weeds cannot be controlled by any other reasonable means.

An emergency authorisation has been agreed for the use of a neonicotinoid seed treatment for sugar beet crops in 2022. The reasons for this decision and the advice provided by the Health and Safety Executive, the UK Expert Committee on Pesticides, Defra’s Chief Scientific Adviser and Defra economists can be found at Neonicotinoid product as seed treatment for sugar beet: emergency authorisation application - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).