Bradford beekeepers have backed calls for the Government to ban pesticides linked to declines in bees and other pollinating insects.

Ministers have been accused of taking an “extraordinarily complacent approach” to protecting bees and insects which perform an important role pollinating crops, following their failure to support European Commission moves to restrict use of insecticides known as neonicotinoids.

Concerns have been raised over possible damage to bees from exposure to neonicotinoids, with research suggesting immediate or long-term effects on bee colony survival and development, and disruption to foraging behaviour.

The parliamentary Environmental Audit Committee said the weight of evidence now warranted precautionary action to protect insects such as bees, moths, butterflies and hoverflies, many of which are suffering declines in numbers in the UK.

A moratorium on use of three neonicotinoid pesticides on crops, such as oil seed rape which bees feed on, should be introduced by the beginning of 2014, a report by the committee said.

And their use in private gardens and places such as golf courses should be banned immediately to create “an urban haven for bees”.

Trevor Smith, from Bradford Beekeepers Association, said the move to get certain pesticides banned would be welcomed, but pointed out there was still no proof that neonicotinoid pesticides killed bees.

He said: “We know it alters their sense of direction so they get lost and can’t return to their colonies – that’s when they die, when they are alone.”

He also said it was agricultural usage of such pesticides that needed to be banned immediately – not just private gardens and other public spaces.

The report also called for greater openness from pesticide companies, who use arguments of commercial sensitivity to keep data secret, so that their research into the environmental impacts of chemicals could be scrutinised.

And clearer targets were needed to reduce reliance on pesticides, it said.

The European Commission wants to restrict the use of certain neonicotinoids so they cannot be used on crops that are attractive to bees, but the UK Government has said the move is not backed by evidence.

The UK had urged the Commission to wait for the results of a Government-commissioned field study on bumblebees, which did not show conclusively that there was a major impact on the insects from the pesticides.

But yesterday’s report concluded the research was “fundamentally flawed” and should not be used as a basis for inaction.

The MPs also said that when scientific evidence was incomplete or contradictory, the Environment Department (Defra) should take precautionary action rather than maintaining the status quo while waiting for further evidence.

Defra’s chief scientific advisor Professor Ian Boyd this week said the issue was finely balanced, with a number of laboratory studies finding impacts on bees, but other experiments conducted in the field showing no or little effect on bees from the pesticides.

He said the balance of evidence suggested it would not be proportionate to ban the chemicals at the moment.