An application by the UK National Farmers’ Union (NFU) for the emergency use of neonicotinoid insecticide seed treatments has been refused. The Union submitted its APPLICATION to allow farmers to use the seed treatments on oilseed rape this autumn. Some 60,000 ha either have not been planted or have been lost due to the unavailability of the products in 2014. The NFU understands that the Health and Safety Executive’s Chemicals Regulations Directorate and the Expert Committee on Pesticides (ECP) made their decisions in May not to recommend approval, based on the application not being sufficiently limited or controlled. The NFU describes the process as “obscure and confusing” and it has called for a more transparent process as it deliberates a second application.

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