The UK environmental watchdog has found that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) breached environmental law when it authorised emergency use of a pesticide linked to bee deaths. The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) says Defra granted emergency authorisations in 2023 and 2024 allowing farmers to use a banned neonicotinoid pesticide on sugar beet crops. According to the watchdog, the department failed to meet required legal standards in how it made and justified these authorisations.
The OEP’s findings relate to permissions to use a substance that is already banned, but was allowed temporarily through emergency measures. The decision affected farmers’ ability to apply the pesticide to crops during those periods.
The report focuses on compliance and process. It highlights that Defra’s actions did not align with the obligations set out under environmental legislation when emergency authorisations were granted. The issue is presented as a breach of law rather than a challenge to the general policy aims behind emergency approvals, with the watchdog calling out the failures in Defra’s handling of the authorisations.
