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

To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made in trialling alternatives to thiamethoxam on sugar beet.

British Sugar are progressing with their plan for the development of alternative, sustainable approaches to protect crops from the Yellows Virus Complex (YV), without the use of neonicotinoid seed treatments. This includes the development of resistant plant varieties, measures to improve seed germination and new integrated pest management (IPM) practices for growers.

Further details of this work are available on the British Beet Research Organisation’s (BBRO) website, and specific questions on the timeline for deployable alternatives should be directed to industry.