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 make an estimate of the number of honeybees in April (a) 2024 and (b) 2025.

There is currently no compulsory registration system for bees and beekeeping in the UK, so it is difficult to provide exact figures for honey bee populations.

Beekeepers are however encouraged to voluntarily register on the Animal and Plant Health Agency’s National Bee Unit (NBU) BeeBase website where they can record their details.

The figures from BeeBase can be used to provide a useful indication of the number of managed colonies in the UK. An Annual Hive Count is carried out where beekeepers are asked to update their BeeBase records. Information about numbers and location of hives is important for Bee Inspectors in terms of preparing and planning for outbreaks of disease and exotic pests.