PESTICIDE USE AND HONEY BEES

That this House notes the recent publication of the findings of a study led by Dr Jeffrey Pettis of the US Department of Agriculture's Bee Research Laboratory, which showed that bees deliberately exposed to even tiny amounts of the neonicotinoid pesticide, imidacloprid, were, on average three times more likely to become infected by the parasite, nosema, as those that had not; recognises that this research adds the most compelling evidence yet to the growing body of scientific work linking neonicotinoid use to decline in populations of honey bees and other pollinators; and calls on the Government to ban the use of this group ofsystemic pesticides anywhere in the UK.