To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much his Department has spent on research into (a) colony collapse disorder and (b) the varroa destructor mite in each of the last six years. (257425)

The causes of the syndrome called colony collapse disorder in the USA are currently unclear and we have no current evidence to suggest that it is occurring in the UK. DEFRA provided an additional £27,000 to the National Bee Unit for work related to abnormal colony losses in 2007-08 and, with the Welsh Assembly Government, provided £120,000 in the current year to continue this work. DEFRA funded a project on the fungal control of Varroa jacobsoni (destructor) between 2002 and 2006 at a cost of £383,802.