Asked by: Earl of Leicester (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government who they have consulted within the forestry industry regarding their tree planting policy; and what consultation they are currently conducting to inform that policy.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Between 19 June 2020 and 11 September 2020, the government ran a public consultation to help inform the development of a new action plan for trees, woodland and forestry in England. We received over 20,400 responses to this consultation, which are summarised in the England Tree Strategy consultation analysis of responses available at GOV.UK.
The England Trees Action Plan was informed by responses to the consultation and provides the strategic framework for the policy measures we will take over this parliament and beyond to meet our long-term vision for healthy and resilient treescapes to 2050. Implementation of the action plan is supported by over £650 million of funding under the Nature for Climate Fund. Our dialogue with delivery partners and other stakeholders continues through the Future of Trees & Forestry Forum and other engagements.
Asked by: Earl of Leicester (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether local authorities are required to report each year on the success rate of tree planting; and whether they require local authorities to seek advice on best practice for tree planting.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Local authorities in receipt of funding from the Local Authority Treescapes Fund and Urban Tree Challenge Fund must report annually on the success rate of tree planting and survival to be eligible to receive funding for three years of post-planting maintenance.
However, tree planting is not a statutory duty for LAs and there is no requirement in law for them to report on tree planting rates.
The Local Authority Tree and Woodland Strategy Toolkit, published in December 2022, provides step-by-step guidance for local authorities to develop an effective trees and woodland strategy to realise the multiple benefits trees can deliver to their communities. It contains helpful information and resources that can be used to guide tree planting and management. We encourage all local authorities to use this resource and create their own strategic approach to expanding, managing and protecting their local treescape.
We have also launched the Woodland Creation Accelerator Fund which is designed to provide financial support to local authorities to increase their capacity and specialist skills to enable them to ramp up tree planting and woodland creation delivery.
Asked by: Earl of Leicester (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consultation they are undertaking regarding the planting of trees to ensure the correct type of tree is being planted, the time of planting is optimum, and the appropriate protections for the trees are being considered to ensure trees planted survive; and what discussions they have had with local authorities also consulting on these matters.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Afforestation proposals are screened against environmental constraints and concerns under the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) forestry regulations. Defra group / The Forestry Commission has published guidance to help landowners develop appropriate proposals where afforestation is on or near breeding wader sites, and on whether to plant or restock woodland on deep peat and peaty soils. When assessing proposals for grant or regulatory approval, the Forestry Commission must consult the proposer, the relevant interested bodies and place details of the proposal on the Public Register for forestry projects. The Forestry Commission must also consider stakeholder feedback before a decision on approval is made
The UK Forestry Standard sets out the requirements and standards for sustainable forestry, as well as supporting guidance on woodland creation good practice. Maintenance grants are available to help ensure trees are appropriately planted and survive.
Asked by: Earl of Leicester (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of (1) how many trees were planted in England in 2022, and (2) how many trees planted in 2022 have died.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Forestry Commission produces statistics on new planting of woodland, and trees outside woodland, in England. These can be found in the Forestry Commission Key Performance Indicators at GOV.UK.
The statistics are reported for each financial year with an interim mid-year estimate where is data available. The reports show that new planting of woodland and trees in amounted to approximately 4,344,000 trees in 2021-22 plus 1,389,000 trees in the first half of 2022-23 to 30 September 2022. We expect to publish statistics for the 2022-23 year in June 2023. We do not collect information on the number of recently planted trees that have died, although a minimum survival rate is required for grant-funded schemes. However, responding to last summer’s exceptionally hot weather, we have supported agreement holders who lost a high proportion of trees planted in winter 21/22 through ‘extraordinary Payments for Replanting in Exceptional Conditions.’
Asked by: Earl of Leicester (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many times a local authority has been brought to court in each year between 2018 and 2022 for cases involving injury due to fallen trees.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice publishes information on the number of defendants prosecuted for offences under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, between the year ending June 2018 and year ending June 2022 in the Outcomes by Offence data tool: June 2022.
This information can be filtered to ‘Companies, public bodies etc.’, however, whether the defendant was a local authority and whether the offence was in relation to injury due to fallen trees specifically is not held centrally in the Court Proceedings Database. This information may be held on court records but to examine individual court records would be of disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Earl of Leicester (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people (1) started, and (2) completed, an arborist apprenticeship for each year between 2017 and 2022.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Apprenticeship starts and achievements on the Arborist Apprenticeship Standard (ST0223) are shown in the below table.
Academic Year | Starts | Achievements |
2017/18 Full Year | 130 | 0 |
2018/19 Full Year | 170 | 0 |
2019/20 Full Year | 170 | 0 |
2020/21 Full Year | 220 | 10 |
2021/22 Full Year | 190 | 20 |
2022/23 (Aug to Oct) | 140 | Low |
Volumes are rounded to the nearest 10 and 'low' indicates a base value of fewer than five. This data has come from the Apprenticeships and Traineeships 2022/23 release, which can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/223f5602-9c34-4509-943f-08db08498a11.
Asked by: Earl of Leicester (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what they are doing to encourage more people to enter careers in arboriculture.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department wants to ensure that people get high quality, impartial advice on the full range of education, training, and career pathways, including careers in arboriculture.
Employers have designed three high-quality apprenticeship standards in arboriculture at entry level 2, level 4, and level 6, to support them to develop the skilled workforces they need. The department recognises that current numbers of apprentices who complete apprenticeships in arboriculture is low. To support more employers and learners to access apprenticeships, the department is increasing funding for apprenticeships in England to £2.7 billion by the 2024/25 financial year. Based on the same employer-led standards as apprenticeships, T Levels in Agriculture, Land Management and Production will be taught for the first time this September. This course allows students to specialise in Trees and Woodlands Management.
The department works with the Careers & Enterprise Company to support secondary schools and colleges to provide pupils with at least one meaningful interaction with employers per pupil per year, an experience of the workplace by age 16 and a further experience by age 18. There are lots of ways employers can engage with the Careers & Enterprise Company, including volunteering to work with individual schools or colleges and working with Careers Hubs on a larger local or regional scale. Industry partnerships support business and sector bodies to share up-to-date information about new pathways into their sector to education leaders and young people and increase the representation of their sector nationally. Employers can find out more via the Careers & Enterprise Company website at: https://www.careersandenterprise.co.uk/employers/.
The National Careers Service (NCS) supports both young people over 13 and adults in offering careers advice across all employment sectors. The website includes around 800 job profiles, describing what these roles entail, qualifications, and entry routes. The NCS can also work with industry to disseminate information to career leaders and careers advisers, in schools, colleges, and in the community via bulletins and newsletters.
The department also funds the Apprenticeship Support and Knowledge (ASK) programme, which provides information, advice and guidance to young people in years 10 to 13 in schools, and further education colleges. At a cost of £3.2 million per year, the programme reached 680,000 young people in the 2021/22 academic year, and over 2,000 schools. It supports young people, parents and carers and teachers into understanding and applying for apprenticeships, T Levels, and Traineeships.
Employers and professional bodies in the arboriculture sector can sign up to Inspiring the Future, run by the Education and Employers charity. This free programme allows volunteers to visit state schools to talk to pupils about their jobs. This will raise the profile of various careers within the arboriculture sector. This is available at: https://www.inspiringthefuture.org.
Asked by: Earl of Leicester (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Markham on 5 December 2022 (HL3057), how the UK Health Security Agency’s The effectiveness of face coverings to reduce transmission of COVID-19 in community settings: A rapid review (update 2) from November 2021 accounts for biases such as the retrospective data collection, short-term duration of the studies and the presence of co-interventions; and why the rapid review was not independently peer-reviewed.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) published a range of rapid evidence reviews. The first review of the effectiveness of face coverings in non-healthcare settings was published on 26 June 2020, with the first update published on 29 January 2021, and the second update published on 9 November 2021. The second update review searched for studies up to 14 September 2021.
Studies were assessed by an experienced UKHSA evidence reviewer and checked by a second reviewer using the quality criteria checklist (QCC) for primary research. This risk of bias tool can be applied to most study designs, observational and interventional, and is suitable for rapid reviews of mixed type of evidence. As copy of this checklist is attached.
Reviewers using the QCC tool can capture bias from retrospective data collection, presence of co-interventions, and short-term duration of follow-up. In all three evidence reviews of the effectiveness of face coverings, all biases that the reviewers felt were present in each of the included studies were detailed in the supplementary tables to the reports.
All evidence reviews were subject to an internal quality assurance and clearance process prior to publication. Due to the pace of the UKHSA COVID-19 pandemic response, independent peer review was not sought prior to publication.
Asked by: Earl of Leicester (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of local authorities which implement a policy of repeat tree inspections looking out for unsafe trees and tree diseases such as ash dieback.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Occupiers’ Liability Act imposes a duty of care on landowners, including Local Authorities, to manage their tree stock and make safe any trees which pose a risk to public safety.
Government has provided Local Authorities with a range of guidance to help them manage their tree stock, including a Common Sense Guide to the Risk Management of Trees, an Ash Dieback Toolkit which has been downloaded over 20,000 times and a Trees and Woodland Strategy toolkit published in December 2022.
The frequency of tree inspections at a local level will be guided by risk, including the proximity of the tree to people and property. Defra does not collect data on the frequency of Local Authority tree inspections.
Asked by: Earl of Leicester (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the percentage of ash trees that are surviving chalara ash dieback disease.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
From observations in Europe and the UK, we expect 1-5% of ash trees to show useful levels of genetic resistance to the disease. Resistance is heritable which offers hope for a future breeding programme.
Reports from Europe have shown maximum mortality rates of 85%, but rates vary between countries and sites, as well as the timescales of monitoring and felling activity, so are difficult to validate. Ash trees, especially larger and older trees, can also decline slowly with the disease, over a period of years or decades, and with recovery shown in some years. This makes it difficult to estimate long term survival with any certainty. In the UK, the level of infection remains widely variable between areas, with the south-east of England being most affected.