Asked by: Lord Framlingham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many young trees were imported into the United Kingdom for the 2013–14 planting season; how this compares with the previous year; and what assessment they have made of the impact of such imports on the health of trees in the United Kingdom.
Answered by Lord De Mauley
The data provided relates to forest reproductive material, the generic name for the seeds, cones, cuttings and planting stock used in forest establishment. It does not cover imports for non-forest reproductive purposes. This data is only available in financial years and relates to imports from the EU and elsewhere. In summary, 2,416,665 plants (bareroot and container) were imported into the UK in 2012/13. In 2013/14, 3,064,388 plants (bareroot and container) were imported. This is an increase of 647,723.
We assess the impacts of tree and plant pests and diseases using the Plant Health Risk register that was published recently. This is publicly available on the Fera website at: https://secure.fera.defra.gov.uk/phiw/riskRegister/
Where necessary, we introduce additional plant health requirements in response to threats associated with movements from other Member States. For example, we have recently instigated measures to require notification for plane, ash, sweet chestnut, oak, elm and pine introduced into England from all other EU Member States. This information can be used to direct surveillance and eradication activities against pests and diseases affecting these species.