My Lords, I am speaking to Amendment 254 in my name and fully support Amendment 152 in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Whitty. I am grateful for the information I have received from the Crop Protection Association, Buglife, Friends of the Earth, the UK Pesticides Campaign and others.
The noble Lord, Lord Whitty, and the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay of Llandaff, have long campaigned for tighter control of pesticides in order to protect human health and the environment. As the noble Lord has already said, these are issues which we explored in depth during the passage of the Agriculture Bill. Undeterred, we are back again to explore the dangers of pesticides to both humans and pollinating insects.
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Pollinators are essential to a healthy countryside and to agricultural production, but in recent years pesticide use has caused a decline in key populations of wild pollinators, resulting in many species disappearing from large areas of the countryside. Amendment 254 sets out in detail the measures necessary to protect our pollinating insects from the harm which pesticides do to them. The widespread use of neonicotinoids resulted in a reduction in the overwintering success of honeybee hives and a decline of 40% in wild bee species. Despite
a ban on the use of Thiamethoxam, its use on sugar beet was authorised by the Minister earlier this year, despite advice from his own advisers not to do so. This is a very harmful substance to bees.
Currently, the reapproval tests that pesticides have to pass look at data only on short-term effects on honeybees. No account is taken of the long-term effect on honeybees and other pollinators. Different groups of pollinators are affected by pesticides in different ways, so it is important that a range of pollinators is included in the pre-approval testing process. This should include acute and chronic effects on honeybees, bumblebees, solitary bees, butterflies, and hoverflies. Independent scientific advice should be considered when reaching decision on whether to proliferate their use.
Glyphosate-based herbicides can cause high levels of mortality in bumblebees. It is not the active ingredient that is harmful, but the other ingredients included in the pesticide product. Great care is needed in the testing regime to ensure that all the ingredients are not likely to have a harmful effect on pollinators. Research undertaken by the UK Pesticides Campaign has highlighted that it is the mixture and cocktail of pesticides sprayed on crops that is so damaging to humans, and to bees and other pollinators. Bees and other pollinators that come into direct contact with the mixture of different pesticides are particularly at risk. Often, any one pesticide application will consist of four or five different products mixed together.
Amendment 152 seeks to protect human health from agricultural pesticides when sprayed in certain areas. If this amendment is accepted, it would prohibit the use of pesticides in these areas and could help other species there, such as bees, other pollinators, and birds. Proposed new subsections (2) and (3) would ensure that scientific advice is independent and free from political and vested-interest influence. I fear this was not the case when the Government relaxed the ban for the sugar beet growers. I understand that the Government come under pressure from producers and business interests to relax rules and regulations in order to allow for greater productivity and profit, but this should not be at the expense of our pollinators. If we have a declining population of pollinators, other producers and crop growers will suffer, as they rely on those very pollinators in order for their crops to prosper. I look forward to the Minister’s favourable response on this vital group for our countryside.