Calling on our new government to undo the damage done to UK pesticide standards
As we prepare to head off to Labour Party Conference this weekend, our minds are focused on what actions need to be taken by the new government to reduce pesticide-related harms to both human health and the environment.
There are a range of brand-new initiatives that we are urging our recently elected ministers to take. From phasing out pesticides in urban areas to introducing the UK’s first ever pesticide reduction targets. There is plenty of work to do!
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However, we also urgently need our new leaders to reverse a range of changes brought in by the previous administration which weakened our pesticide standards. The changes by the previous government include:
- Granting automatic license extensions for a range of Highly Hazardous Pesticides so that they remain in use for longer, regardless of any evidence of harms.
- Threatening food safety by quietly weakening dozens of safety limits for the amount of pesticide residues allowed in food.
- Signing new trade deals which are likely to lead to larger amounts of more toxic pesticides in our food and drive an increase in the use of environmentally damaging pesticides (such as bee-toxic neonicotinoids) in other countries where our food is grown.
- Weakening the UK’s legal framework governing pesticides in a way which removes checks and balances that were designed to restrict the power and influence of the agrochemical industry.
While much outrage has been focused on the previous government’s decision to repeatedly grant permissions to use neonicotinoids on sugar beet, the changes listed above were pushed through quietly and without fanfare. However, cumulatively, they amount to a significant undermining of UK pesticide legislation and risk opening UK residents, consumers and the environment up to additional harms.
At Labour Party Conference, we will be lobbying our new government to reverse these changes. If they want to keep their promises on restoring nature, cleaning up our waters and improving health outcomes, then they need to undo the harms caused by the previous government to our hard-won pesticide standards.
