MPs criticise Defra with stinging attack

16 Jul 09
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs needs to give more priority to the health of honeybees, MPs have said.
16 July 2009

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs needs to give more priority to the health of honeybees, MPs have said.

The Public Accounts Committee, in a report published on July 14, criticised the department for failing to react adequately to the ‘alarming’ decline in the bee population, on which it spent just £1.5m in 2007/08.

Only half of active beekeepers have signed up for the non-compulsory registration scheme that enables monitoring and control of disease, the MPs said.

PAC chair Edward Leigh said: ‘The pollination of crops by honeybees is worth an estimated £200m each year to the British economy. So it is difficult to understand why Defra has taken so little interest in the problem up to now.’

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