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

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they plan to take to protect vulnerable populations from drug-resistant fungal infections by assessing the risks of agricultural fungicide use for the emergence of clinical anti-fungal resistance within the environment, in line with recent US and EU risk assessment frameworks.

This Government recognises the importance of carefully managing pesticide use – including fungicides – to protect the environment and human health, and address the risks of resistance.

The UK Pesticides National Action Plan (NAP), published in March, sets out the actions we will take to support effective and sustainable pest management. A key goal in the NAP is increasing uptake of integrated pest management – a holistic approach that reduces the likelihood of resistance building by minimising and optimising pesticide use.

When authorising pesticide products, the regulations require the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to consider the potential for resistance development in the target pest organism. Where such resistance is known or anticipated, HSE will place specific limitations on the use of the plant protection product to help mitigate the likelihood and speed of resistance development. Authorisation holders are also required to monitor the resistance situation and report significant changes in resistance status to HSE.

The possible development of resistance in non-target organisms, for example through indirect exposure or the transfer of resistance genes, is not specifically considered. This mirrors international plant protection standards. HSE is considering the latest evidence relating to fungal antimicrobial resistance (AMR), in particular the recent European Food Safety Authority publication.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) publishes annual figures on drug-resistant fungal bloodstream infections, and on the use of antifungal drugs in the human healthcare sector.

Fungaemia (including candidaemia): annual data from voluntary surveillance - GOV.UK (copy attached to this answer)

English surveillance programme for antimicrobial utilisation and resistance (ESPAUR) report - GOV.UK (copy attached to this answer)

UKHSA is one of many collaborators working with the One Health collaborative PATHSAFE programme and the recently announced UK Research and Innovation Fungal One Health and Antimicrobial Resistance Research Network, both established to develop new approaches to tackling AMR.