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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how frequently her Department plans to update the National Pollinator Strategy.

The National Pollinator Strategy is a 10 year plan which sets out a framework for collective action to protect pollinators on farmland, towns, cities and the countryside, and to enhance the response to pests and disease risk. The Strategy also seeks to raise awareness of what pollinators need to thrive through a call to action message which sets out five simple actions that everyone can take to support pollinators (www.wildlifetrusts.org/Bees-needs).

The Strategy is an important starting point and must be flexible, adapting to new data and understanding as this emerges. We will keep the Strategy under review, refreshing the aims by 2019 and identifying any necessary targets and additional policies to strengthen our response based on an improved understanding of the baselines, the impact of pressures and the role of pollinators. The review will also consider lessons learned from the initial policy actions and partnership working. We will coordinate the production of a one year progress report with key partners on implementation of the Strategy later this year.