Lovett believes that mites can only have been imported by beekeepers as no host bee carrying the parasite could have made it to the country on its own.
He suggested the nature and levels of bee disease varied between different parts of the UK and said there was no evidence Scottish inspectors were missing vast numbers of bee disease.
"Since there is no evidence to pin the widespread declines of bee populations on any single factor, a proposed ban on neonicotinoids is unlikely to deliver any benefits that will halt or reverse these declines, " he suggested.
The committee was told there were 37, 000 registered bee keepers in England and Wales - but as there was no compulsory registration, unlike in France and New Zealand - that was only a rough estimate of how many people actually kept bees.