Bee Health Improvement Partnership (BHIP) Annual Report 2025

Conclusion and forward look

During the third full year of Scotland’s current 10-year Honey Bee Health Strategy, the BHIP has successfully carried out several of its key actions while making significant progress on others. These efforts have been aimed at addressing a range of important issues and achieving the desired outcomes for honey bee health in Scotland.

Turning towards 2026, key priorities for the BHIP include:

Education

• A suite of education modules have been developed and will be made available during 2026 to enable beekeepers across Scotland to access information and advice on how to tackle bee-health-related issues.

Pests and Diseases

• As part of the requirements of the EFB control plan its signatories must attend a re-certification course every three years. A re-certification course has been planned for May 2026 in Perth and will involve diseased comb demonstrations, presentations on biosecurity and the requirements of the EFB control plan. The attendees will complete an assessment at the end of the course in both disease recognition and the requirements of the plan.

Research and development

• Work is planned to review the EFB Control Plan and wider EFB Strategy to ensure they remain effective, proportionate, and aligned with current evidence and operational experience. This review will incorporate recent scientific and economic analysis, as well as lessons learned from field delivery, to ensure Scotland’s approach continues to support effective disease control and long-term bee health resilience.

• If you would like to keep up to date with the progress of the work of the BHIP, its implementation plan is updated following every meeting and can be accessed Scotland’s Honey Bee Health Strategy: implementation plan – gov.scot.