National Bee Unit: Manpower

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many bee disease inspectors were employed by the National Bee Unit in each year since 2004. (291913)

The numbers of bee inspectors employed by the Food and Environment Research Agency’s National Bee Unit (NBU) in England and Wales each year since 2004 are as follows:

	Number
2004	45
2005	45
2006	45
2007	45
2008	45
2009	63

These figures include eight full-time regional bee inspectors and the national bee inspector. The remainder are seasonal bee inspectors who are employed for the active beekeeping season. Details of the work undertaken by the NBU’s bee inspectors can be found on the NBU website at:

Volume 497: debated on Wednesday 14 October 2009