NEONICOTINOID INSECTICIDES AND BEES 9/16
I entirely agree with you that bees and other pollinators play a vital role in the security of our food supply and the quality of our environment. I welcome the Government's work to understand and protect them, most recently through the National Pollinator Strategy.
There are rules providing for the use of normally restricted products to be authorised in emergency situations to protect crops. If emergency authorisation is granted, this does not mean that the ban has been lifted: the facility to allow strictly controlled, targeted uses of pesticides under an emergency authorisation is an essential feature of precautionary bans.
These decisions are taken based on recommendations from the Expert Committee on Pesticides, the independent body of scientists that advises the Government. It takes all environmental factors into account, including the effects of using greater quantities of less effective alternative pesticides.
Last year the Committee recommended that an application for these treatments, covering no more than 5 per cent of the national crop and only on seeds to be sown in the summer and autumn, should be approved. Based on this advice Defra agreed to grant this limited authorisation, covering areas where crops were at the greatest risk of damage by pests.
This year there have been two separate sets of applications to use neonicotinoids on part of the country's oilseed rape crop, but in each case the Committee advised that the applications did not give sufficient assurances that the uses would be limited to those areas most in danger, nor that they would be controlled appropriately. Accordingly, Defra followed the advice of the Committee and has declined these applications.
While we remain in the EU the UK will continue to meet its obligations under EU law, including restrictions on neonicotinoids. As part of the preparation for exiting the EU, Ministers are considering future arrangements for pesticides. Their highest priority will continue to be the protection of people and the environment, and with the advice of the independent Expert Committee on Pesticides they will base these decisions on a careful scientific assessment of the risks.
