Recommendations
8. While
we were seeking clarification on its application to use an EU-based
neonicotinoid seed-treatment, Syngenta withdrew it. The Government
should make clear, either in its response to this report or in
the final National Pollinator Strategy, that had it been obliged
to rule on the application it would not have allowed it, or indeed
any other of a similar kind in future. (Paragraph 18)
9. Defra must ensure
that independent controls remain in place throughout any commercially-funded
research, and that when completed the results are peer-reviewed
and published in full and without delay. (Paragraph 23)
10. The Government
must review the aspects of CAP environmental schemes which are
open to national decision-making to ensure that pollinator protection
is a priority driver rather than an optional rationale. It should
also ensure that the European Commission's review of the implementation
and efficacy of Ecological Focus Areas after their first year
of operation applies a similar test. (Paragraph 31)
11. Defra should present
in the finalised Pollinator Strategy a clear view of what Integrated
Pest Management includes and excludes, and ensure its interpretation
of IPM reflects best practice elsewhere, including the UN guidance.
The Strategy should also set out how potential targets for IPM,
including for reduced pesticide use, could build on a research-led,
evolving understanding of the factors affecting pollinators. (Paragraph
35)
12. The finalised
Strategy and the 'delivery package' to take it forward should
set out the Government's intended approach in the areas we have
examined in this report: ensuring agriculture plays a full part
in protecting pollinators; the role of Integrated Pest Management;
and how public engagement will be sustained. It should explain
and justify the logic of the predominantly voluntary approach
of the measures in the draft Strategy and identify the tests for
judging if a mandatory or incentivised approach would be required.
The final Strategy should provide a coherent narrative of how
all relevant Government policies will contribute to pollinator
protection—not just other environmental policies within
Defra's remit but those of other departments such as the well-being
agenda and development planning—and set out a process for
the Strategy to be continually updated as further research is
undertaken and policy developed. (Paragraph 38)
13. Defra should use the final Strategy to
draw a line under the neonicotinoid ban by making it clear that
the UK accepts the European risk assessments underpinning the
ban, that it supports the ban and will not seek to end it when
a European review is possible in 2015, or otherwise to circumvent
it. Defra should make it clear that applications to continue using
neonicotinoids, like Syngenta's, would constitute an attempt to
by-pass the precautionary principle rationale behind the ban and
as such will not be contemplated. (Paragraph 39)
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