Oral Answers to Questions Debate
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Kris Hopkins
Main Page: Kris Hopkins (Conservative - Keighley)Department Debates - View all Kris Hopkins's debates with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
(11 years, 3 months ago)
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Mr Paterson
I think that there may have been a question lurking in the humbug somewhere. The fact is that we have enormously increased research on plant diseases. I pay tribute to all those in the Forestry Commission and the DEFRA agencies who conducted a totally unprecedented survey of the whole United Kingdom—2,500 pieces of land, each 10 kilometres square—and analysed where the disease had come from. We know that, sadly, it has blown in and that there is a genetic strain, and we will work with companies such as Hillier’s to find it.
Kris Hopkins (Keighley) (Con)
16. What role does my right hon. Friend think the public can play, not only in the response to ash dieback but in our wider approach to tree health?
Mr Paterson
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his much more constructive question. The public can play a key role. We know that there is a genetic strain that is resistant; we have seen it in Denmark and Holland. Organisations such as the Woodland Trust can play a vital part in helping us to identify the trees that are resistant so that we can start to breed from them.