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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what support she provides to farmers when changes are made to pesticide regulations; and if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of ensuring the availability of approved alternative substances.

If changes are made to regulations including pesticides we aim to do so transparently, for example through consultation, with those impacted including the farming sector. When a decision is made about an active substance or plant protection product by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) this is done in line with the legislation which ensures that affected individual farmers and businesses are made aware in sufficient time to make changes.

As set out in the UK Pesticides National Action Plan (NAP), we want to ensure that farmers and growers have sufficient access to safe and sustainable tools to deal with pests and diseases. This includes improving access to biopesticides.

The HSE runs the biopesticides scheme to support companies who want to apply for approval of a biopesticide. The scheme includes dedicated HSE biopesticide champions, free pre-submission advice, and capped fees for biopesticide active substance approval.