‘emergency’ use of

banned bee-harming pesticide just days after EU tightens protections

This report is from the website of The Wildlife Trusts (www.wildlifetrusts.org)

ON 23RD JANUARY 2023, the UK government announced that for the third year in a row, it will permit the use of the banned pesticide thiamethoxam - a type of neonicotinoid - on sugar beet in England in 2023.

A single teaspoon of neonicotinoid is enough to deliver a lethal dose to 1.25 billion bees. This came just four days after the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) declared that providing emergency derogations for expressly prohibited neonicotinoid-treated seeds is not in line with EU law. This emergency authorisation comes a month after the UK government was advocating for a global pesticide reduction target at the UN COP15 biodiversity talks in Montreal. Despite a global pesticide target being significantly watered down in the final deal signed at COP15, UK negotiators supported more robust action. It is disappointing that the same approach is not being taken when it comes to domestic pesticides.

Three neonicotinoids (NNs) including thiamethoxam were banned for outdoor agricultural use in the UK and the EU in 2018 due to their devastating impact on bees. Despite UK guidance stating that emergency applications should not be granted more than once, last year the government handed the industry a second approval, ignoring the advice of its own expert body which cited potential impacts on adult honeybees, other pollinators and aquatic organisms as reasons that the application should be rejected.

This year the UK Expert Committee on Pesticides (ECP) once again advised against allowing thiamethoxam to be

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used and likewise were again ignored by the government. Despite significant public interest in the plight of bees and other pollinators, the process for emergency authorisation has been shrouded in secrecy, with no opportunity to scrutinise the application.

This authorisation is another example of the government failing to follow their warm words with meaningful action when it comes to pesticides and biodiversity. Joan Edwards, director of policy & public affairs at The Wildlife Trusts,

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“Only a few days ago, the EU’s highest court ruled that EU countries should no longer be allowed temporary exemptions for banned, bee-toxic neonicotinoid pesticides, putting half of all such derogations to an end. Yet this Government deems it acceptable to allow the use of a toxic pesticide that is extremely harmful to bees and other insects, at a time when populations of our precious pollinators are already in freefall. This is unacceptable when the Government should be implementing fast, meaningful support to help farmers move away from a reliance on toxic pesticides.”