To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that the development of a national action plan for the sustainable use of pesticides will take account of the environmental principles policy statement, published by her Department on 12 May 2022.
Answered on
24 April 2023
The Environment Act 2021 created a duty for ministers to have due regard to the environmental principles policy statement when developing policy. The statement was published on 31 January 2023 and the duty will come into force on 1 November 2023. We are currently working to effectively implement the new duty, in order to put environmental considerations at the heart of policy making.
We will publish the updated UK National Action Plan on the Sustainable Use of Pesticides (NAP) this year. The NAP will set out Defra’s ambition to minimise the risks and impacts of pesticides to human health and the environment, including how we intend to increase the uptake of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) across all sectors. We will have due regard to the environmental principles policy statement as we implement the new NAP.