Bee

The National Pollinator Strategy is out for consultation, and set for publication in autumn of this year

The government has been warned against using pesticide companies to fund research into the impact of pesticides on pollinators in a review of the draft National Pollinator Strategy.

The inquiry, by the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC), was published today as a response to the government’s draft National Pollinator Strategy, released for consultation in March of this year. The final version will be published in autumn.

It examined government plans for further research and how this would be carried out.

'When it comes to research on pesticides, Defra is content to let the manufacturers fund the work. This testifies to a loss of environmental protection capacity in the department responsible for it,” said EAC chair and MP Joan Walley. “If the research is to command public confidence, independent controls need to be maintained at every step. Unlike other research funded by pesticide companies, these studies also need to be peer-reviewed and published in full.'

The report suggested that Defra uses the final National Pollinator Strategy to “draw a line” under the European neonicotinoid ban. “[Defra] should make clear that it now accepts the ban and will not seek to overturn it when the European Commission conducts a review next year,” said Walley.

Defra also came under fire for failing to use the new Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) to put the focus on bees and other pollinators. Walley said: 'The way Defra has chosen to implement environmental schemes under the CAP does not put the focus on pollinators. The government should ensure that pollinators are the focus of the upcoming European Commission review of the CAP measures.'

Walley also said that the government should make it clear that it will not accept applications for emergency use of banned pesticides. She said that Syngenta recently filed such an application, which was eventually withdrawn, but the government should make clear that it would have been turned down.

But she praised the plans to include the public the future pollinator monitoring strategy. She said: “I’m pleased to see that the Strategy encourages the public to get involved. That will be the best way of ensuring politicians don’t lose momentum in this vitally important area.'

The EAC published its Pollinators and Pesticides report in 2013, advocating the ban of neonicotinoids, which the government rejected on the basis that evidence was “not clear”. However, the ban was later adopted by the EU after evidence was deemed of “sufficient concern”.It came into effect in December 2013 and is due to be reviewed in 2015.