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

To ask His Majesty's Government whether sugar beet growers are able to comply with the conditions of emergency use of neonicotinoids having regard to the limited acreage of individual farms, in particular, with reference to the statement, that (1) "Only a specific list of crops, none of which flower before harvest, are permitted to be planted in the same field as treated sugar beet within 32 months", and (2) "no further use of thiamethoxam seed treatments on the same field within 46 months".

Farmers are free to decide whether they wish to grow sugar beet in a given year. Those farmers who opted to grow sugar beet with Cruiser SB when emergency authorisations have been granted in the past will have considered how to accommodate the restrictions on succeeding crops in their crop rotation plans. The restrictions were considered to be consistent with typical arable crop rotation patterns.