Government ‘failed to comply with law when approving use of banned pesticide’

Rebecca Speare-Cole, Press Association Sustainability Reporter

The Government failed to comply with environmental laws when deciding whether to approve the emergency use of a banned bee-killing pesticide on sugar beet, a watchdog has found.

The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP), which aims to hold government and other public authorities to account over actions that affect the environment, investigated the decision-making process for the emergency authorisation of “Cruiser SB” on sugar beet seeds.

The pesticide helps to control peach-potato aphids – insects that transmit disease to the crop – but it also contains a chemical that is part of a group called neonicotinoids, which can paralyse butterflies, bees and other pollinators.

It has been banned for use in the UK since 2018, but the Environment Department (Defra) approved applications for its emergency use on sugar beet crops for four consecutive years from 2021 to 2024.

The OEP said it looked into possible serious failures by the department to comply with a number of environmental laws in relation to the 2023 and 2024 authorisations.

The watchdog looked at Defra’s interpretation and application of rules concerning nature conservation and the environment when it considered granting applications in 2023 and 2024.

Of six grounds of investigation, the body concluded that there had been failures to comply with environmental law in relation to four.

This included failures to take proper account of the requirement to carry out an appropriate assessment of how the emergency use could affect certain sites protected for nature as well as take steps to understand, avoid or mitigate the known risks of harms to these sits.

The OEP also found failures to take reasonable steps to further the conservation and enhancement of features found in designated sites of special scientific interest (SSSI) and consider whether the authorisations were likely to cause damage.

Helen Venn, chief regulatory officer for the OEP, said: “Pesticides can obviously be extremely harmful to wildlife, including bees and other pollinators.

“It is only right that the use of restricted or banned pesticides is tightly controlled and takes proper account of the environmental protections in place.

“While our investigation was focused on emergency authorisations of neonicotinoid pesticides, we were looking at the decision-making process not the decisions themselves.”

The OEP said the Government is now updating its process for deciding whether to grant emergency authorisations for use of restricted pesticides.

The aim is to ensure officials carry out a proper assessment of the potential for environmental harm, including consideration of impacts on protected sites.

“This is very welcome,” Ms Venn said, adding that the OEP will now close the investigation at this stage because it is satisfied with Defra’s planned action, though it will continue to monitor the implementation of the updated process.

Labour came to power promising to end the emergency use of three banned neonicotinoids – including the chemical found in Cruiser B – and denied an emergency authorisation application for its use for the 2025 sugar beet crop.

However, ministers came under fire last month for allowing the emergency use of a different neonicotinoid on sugar beet in response to farmers experiencing “exceptionally high pressure from aphids” in 2026.

Farmers are usually only allowed to spray this product on their crops once a year to control the pests, but ministers quietly allowed a second spray this year, prompting criticism from wildlife groups.

The Environment Department has been contacted for comment.