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

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to reduce the environmental risks of (1) pesticides, and (2) highly hazardous chemicals.

The UK, as party to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), is committed to meeting a global target to reduce the overall risks from pesticides and highly hazardous chemicals by at least half by 2030, as agreed at COP15 as part of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

Individual countries will be starting from different baseline positions in making their contributions to the overall global target and the UK will need to update and submit its National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans by the 16th Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biodiversity, in 2024.

The UK is also committed to publishing a National Action Plan for the Sustainable Use of Pesticides (NAP), which will outline how we will take action to minimise the risks and impacts of pesticides to human health and the environment, while ensuring pests and pesticide resistance can be managed effectively.

We are developing a cross-government Chemicals Strategy to frame the work we are doing across chemicals and put us on a path towards improved chemicals management. It will set out our priorities and principles for taking regulatory action to protect human health and the environment. Internationally, the UK is participating in negotiations for a new global framework for the safe and effective management of chemicals, to replace the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management.