The UK government has announced plans to ban bee-killing pesticides, including neonicotinoids, but controversy surrounds the potential use of the highly toxic neonicotinoid Cruiser SB next year.

Applications for its use have been submitted by the National Farmers’ Union and British Sugar, raising concerns among environmentalists.

Cruiser SB is known to harm bees by attacking their nervous systems. According to Prof. Dave Goulson of the University of Sussex, just one teaspoon of the chemical can kill 1.25 billion honeybees. Even at sublethal doses, it impairs bees’ ability to forage for nectar, and its residues can persist in soil for years.

Ministers have proposed legislation to permanently ban three neonicotinoids—clothianidin, imidacloprid, and thiamethoxam—but their track record raises doubts.

Paul de Zylva, nature campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: “An end to the previous government’s annual pantomime of granting the ‘emergency’ use of these deeply harmful pesticides is long overdue. But we’re not out of the woods yet – the government must follow through by fully committing to a complete ban come January. And it must go even further still, by scrapping the current, weak national pesticides action plan and instead produce a credible version.”

2017, then-environment secretary Michael Gove pledged to use Brexit to eliminate bee-harming pesticides. However, since 2021, the UK has granted annual emergency authorisations for thiamethoxam during weather conditions favoring the pest virus yellows on sugar beet plants, conditions met every year.

The EU has outlawed all emergency authorisations of neonicotinoids, while the UK continues to allow limited use.

This year’s approval of thiamethoxam has led to an investigation by the Office for Environmental Protection into the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

Environmental groups are urging the government to uphold its commitment to protect pollinators and end reliance on harmful pesticides, highlighting the need for sustainable farming practices that safeguard biodiversity.

Greenpeace UK’s policy director, Doug Parr, said: “There should be no place in this country for pesticides that poison our bees, period. So it’s good to see ministers confirming their commitment to a complete ban on these bee-killing chemicals, but now they should waste no time in bringing it into effect.”

The environment minister Emma Hardy said: “We are delivering on our promise to ban toxic bee-killing pesticides and ending the long-term decline of our wildlife. A healthy environment is vital to our food and economic security. Protecting bees by stopping the use of damaging neonicotinoids is an important step in supporting the long-term health of our environment and waterways, and our farming sector.”