An application to use a banned, bee-killing insecticide on sugar beet seeds in 2024 is on the table, despite an industry pledge to end its use in 2023.

This move comes three years after British Sugar had requested additional time to develop alternatives to neonicotinoids.

The Expert Committee on Pesticides, typically cautioning the government against authorising such pesticides, warns that the potential risks to bees and other pollinators outweigh the benefits for sugar beet growers.

Farming minister for the UK Government, Mark Spencer, will now decide whether to adhere to expert advice and European standards or to proceed with the authorisation of this banned chemical next year.

Neonicotinoids, banned in the UK and the EU in 2018, are harmful in even minuscule traces.

They disrupt a bee’s navigation and reproduction abilities, hence affecting their long-term survival.

They also pose a toxic threat to aquatic invertebrates when washed into streams and rivers.

The UK Government has granted derogations for the use of neonicotinoids on sugar beet in the last three years.

The European High Court ruled on January 19, 2023, that authorisations for using neonicotinoids were never justified.

Four days later, the UK Government permitted their usage on sugar beet.

The decision went against the recommendation of the UK Expert Committee on Pesticides.

Estelle Bailey, chief executive of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust, said: "No farmer wants to grow crops using banned pesticides – and no one wants their Christmas cake baked with bee-harming sugar.

"Where are the alternatives that British Sugar claimed it would invest in?

"All eyes are now on the Minister, Mark Spencer, to uphold the law banning bee-harming pesticides."

"British Sugar appears more interested in short-term profits than the long-term sustainability of the farming sector.”

Recent findings reveal that harmful neonicotinoids have contaminated over 10 per cent of English rivers since their ban in 2018.

They pose a substantial risk to wildlife in more than half of the affected rivers.

The Wildlife Trusts lodged a formal complaint against the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) in June 2021, arguing the Minister’s decision to permit a derogation was flawed and should never have been authorised.

Professor Dave Goulson said: "Neurotoxins persist in soils for years, and they are now known to be found in hedgerow plants, streams and ponds.

"They do not just pose a threat to bees; any insect living on farmland or in streams that flow from farmland, and any organisms that depend on insects for food are likely to be affected."

The public can support The Wildlife Trusts campaign for better nature-friendly farming at the Wildlife Trusts' website.