UK overrules scientific advice by lifting ban on bee-harming pesticide

Campaigners aghast as emergency exemption on use of thiamethoxam granted due to risk to sugar beet crop

An insecticide banned due to its harm to bees will be used on sugar beet in Britain this year after ministers authorised an emergency exemption. The government overruled its own scientific advisers and the decision was called scandalous" by campaigners.

The neonicotinoid, called thiamethoxam, was banned in 2018 across Europe after a series of studies found it damaged bees. But British Sugar applied for an emergency exemption and on Tuesday the conditions for the exemption were met.