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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they made of (1) the effect on bee populations of a pesticide containing neonicotinoid thiamethoxam, and (2) the effectiveness of other products that are less harmful to bees, before approving the emergency use of that pesticide to treat sugar beet seed.

The process for considering an emergency authorisation for a pesticide is set out in the legislation and includes consideration of potential risks to people and to the environment. This process was followed for an application to use the neonicotinoid seed treatment Cruiser SB (containing thiamethoxam) on sugar beet in 2021.

The assessment of environmental risks included consideration of risks to bees and other insects, amongst other factors. Sugar beet is a non-flowering crop and the risks to bees from the sugar beet crop itself were assessed to be acceptable. Risks to bees were identified arising from soil residues taken up by following crops or flowering weeds. Mitigation measures were therefore set as requirements of the emergency authorisation. These conditions include ensuring that no flowering crops are planted as following crops for a period of at least 22 months, with an extended period of exclusion for oilseed rape (of 32 months), to minimise the risk to bees. An industry-recommended herbicide programme must be followed to limit flowering weeds in and around any treated sugar beet crops.

The insecticide Teppeki is available to beet growers for control of aphids but only one spray application per season is currently permitted. This is not adequate to control beet yellows virus in the crop under sustained aphid population pressure and virus transmission during the critical risk period. Similarly, cultural approaches are helpful but not in themselves sufficient to protect the crop. As part of the application for emergency authorisation, a plan was outlined for developing alternative approaches to protect crops without the use of neonicotinoid seed treatments.