To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate he has made of the value of the contribution honey bees made to the agricultural economy in the last 12 months. (206784)

[holding answer 20 May 2008]: I refer the hon. Member to the reply given on 12 May 2008, Official Report, column 1324W, to my hon. Friend the Member for Wirral, South (Ben Chapman).

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps he is taking to monitor and control foul brood diseases in bees. (206785)

[holding answer 20 May 2008]: The National Bee Unit operates a statutory inspection programme for American foul brood (AFB) and European foul brood (EFB). DEFRA’s bee health R and D programme is assessing the effectiveness of the shook swarm technique for the control of EFB to determine whether this method can be used by beekeepers as part of an Integrated Pest Management scheme. In addition, a PhD studentship is being funded through the DEFRA seedcorn fund to study AFB.

Reports are currently being prepared for two projects carried out during 2007-08 under the Horizon Scanning and Future Proofing Scheme which forms part of the Memorandum of Understanding between DEFRA and the Central Science Laboratory. These projects aimed to develop additional methods for distinguishing the bacteria causing AFB from other bacteria in the same subspecies and to investigate resistance of honey bees to EFB.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what research he is funding on tropilaelaps; and if he will make a statement. (206789)

[holding answer 20 May 2008]: No research on tropilaelaps is being carried out. Tropilaelaps is not considered to be present in Europe. However, a contingency plan for exotic pests and diseases of honey bees has been developed with stakeholders.