It seems that the government has had second thoughts. The permission to use neonicotinoids on sugar beet this year has been withdrawn. The official reason is that the recent cold snap has affected the aphids. The number of aphids has fallen below a critical level and as a result the government has decided that neonicotinoids are not to be used this year. It is good to see that government policy is being "driven by the data not the dates."
However it is possible that next year the aphid population may not be affected by the cold and government decisions may not be driven by Honey Bee data. We must, for the sake of the bees and all the other pollinators under threat, make certain that permission to use neonicotinoids is not granted in Spring 2022.