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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to consult all European countries about the reported declines in insect populations.

The UK Government is committed to action for pollinators, globally and at home. We regularly discuss and share information on research, policy and practical activities with a number of countries, in and beyond Europe, on reported declines and how best to address them.

The UK is a member of ‘Promote Pollinators’, an international coalition of the willing, with 60 members, including countries in Europe and across the world, committed to action to protect pollinators.

We have also supported collaborative international research which has underpinned such initiatives, including a major global review of the status and threats to insect pollinators, published in 2015 by the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.

The UK continues to play a leading role in the development of an ambitious post-2020 global framework for biodiversity to be adopted at the 15^th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. We will be supporting ambitious targets to bend the curve on biodiversity loss by 2030 - including in areas which will help to recover insect populations, such as ecosystem restoration and species recovery - supported by strengthened reporting and review mechanisms to help facilitate the implementation of the targets.