UK backs European pesticide ban to save bees

A TOTAL ban on bee-harming pesticides in the countryside across Europe will be supported by the UK and kept in place after Brexit, the Environment Secretary has said.

In a reversal of the Government’s previous position on “neonicotinoid” pesticides, Michael Gove said new evidence indicated the risk to bees and other insects from the chemicals was “greater than previously understood”.

The science justifies the further restrictions on their use which have been proposed by the European Union, and unless the evidence changes the Government will maintain the controls postBrexit, he said.

Since 2013, the EU has banned three neonicotinoids for use on certain crops such as oil seed rape, after authorities identified risks to honey bees.

The UK Government initially opposed the ban, claiming there was not enough evidence that bees were harmed by the pesticides, but other member states disagreed and the ban was implemented across the EU.

The European Commission has since proposed restricting the three neonicotinoids to only allow use on plants in greenhouses, which would extend the ban to crops such as sugar beet and winter cereals with seed treated with the chemicals.

Research estimates the value of the UK’s 1,500 species of bees, butterflies and other pollinating insects to crops as being around £400m to £680m a year due to increased productivity.

They are also a key part of wildlife food chains.

Mr Gove, a leading Brexiteer, said he wanted to see a “Green Brexit” in which environmental standards were not only maintained but enhanced.

“The weight of evidence now shows the risks neonicotinoids pose to our environment, particularly to the bees and other pollinators which play such a key part in our £100bn food industry, is greater than previously understood.

“I believe this justifies further restrictions on their use. We cannot afford to put our pollinator populations at risk.”

He added: “I recognise the impact further restrictions will have on farmers and I am keen to work with them to explore alternative approaches both now and as we design a new agricultural policy outside the European Union.”

Research last month found three-quarters of the honey produced worldwide contains neonicotinoids, highlighting how widespread they had become in the environment.