Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what her proposed timeline is for publishing the Tree Action Plan.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government will publish a new Trees Action Plan in 2026.
Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Tree Action Plan intends to support the restoration of ancient woodland, particularly on smaller plantations on ancient woodland sites or sites that are harder to restore.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government will continue to support the restoration of ancient woodland. Woodlands as small as 0.5ha are now eligible for the Countryside Stewardship supplements “Manage and restore Plantations on Ancient Woodland Sites (PAWs)” and “Manage native woodland including Ancient Semi-Natural Woodlands”, ensuring support is available to landowners and managers of smaller ancient woodlands.
In 2025, we also updated our Countryside Stewardship offer by simplifying our baseline Woodland Improvement grant.
These steps will help to bring more of our smaller ancient woodlands into restoration and management.
Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the Tree Planting Taskforce's progress; and what involvement that Taskforce has had in the development of the Tree Action Plan.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK-wide Tree Planting Taskforce brings together the relevant ministers from across the four UK nations. It has made good progress, enabling cross-UK collaboration and furthered understanding of shared challenges and opportunities.
Given the UK-wide nature of the Taskforce, it is not directly involved in the development of the Trees Action Plan for England, although Defra is engaging with relevant delivery partners and arm’s-length bodies on the Action Plan. We will continue to engage with the Taskforce to identify opportunities for cross-UK working.
Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, where saplings planted to meet EIP25 interim targets will be sourced from.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra’s Nature for Climate Fund continues to invest working to increase the availability of domestically grown saplings for woodland creation through its Sector Capacity project. Forestry Commission publish annually the Tree Supply Report and Tree Nursery Directories to bring visibility to the market and work closely with the nurseries to assess trends in the market. There is an increasingly strong supply of trees from across the UK and beyond, as highlighted in the Tree Supply Report.
Through the Tree Supply Report, we estimate that over 161 million trees were grown in Great Britain in 24/25, 1,000,000 more than the previous year. This has built up resilience in our seed and tree supply, improving ability to meet the interim target of reaching 16.5% tree canopy and woodland cover by 2050. The Nature for Climate Fund funded grants this financial year of up to £7.8 million capital investment in tree production through the Tree Production Capital Grant; £7.8 million supporting innovation in tree production through the Tree Production Innovation Fund and £871K supporting tree seed sourcing through the Seed Sourcing Grant. We have also invested in Forestry England developing a state-of-the-art new Seed processing unit at Delamere. As well as processing seed for use in the nation’s forests, this facility will continue to make surplus seed from a limited number of species available to the private sector.
Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the answer of 24 November 2025 to Question 91533 on Brownfield Sites: Biodiversity, whether she plans to consult further on the definition of (a) small and (b) medium sites before final decisions on the future of Biodiversity Net Gain.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government response to the ‘Improving biodiversity net gain for minor, medium and brownfield development’ consultation and the impact assessment will be published in due course.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government published in May a working paper on site thresholds for planning purposes, including a potential new category of medium development. They are assessing the response to this working paper.
Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the answer of 24 November 2025 to Question 91533 on Brownfield Sites: Biodiversity, if she will ensure adequate Parliamentary scrutiny of that impact assessment before final decisions on the future of Biodiversity Net Gain.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government response to the ‘Improving biodiversity net gain for minor, medium and brownfield development’ consultation and the impact assessment will be published in due course.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government published in May a working paper on site thresholds for planning purposes, including a potential new category of medium development. They are assessing the response to this working paper.
Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the answer of 24 November 2025 to Question 91533 on Brownfield Sites: Biodiversity, whether the full impact assessment will be published prior to her response to the consultation.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government response to the ‘Improving biodiversity net gain for minor, medium and brownfield development’ consultation and the impact assessment will be published in due course.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government published in May a working paper on site thresholds for planning purposes, including a potential new category of medium development. They are assessing the response to this working paper.
Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the answer of 24 November 2025 to Question 91533 on Brownfield Sites: Biodiversity, when the full impact assessment will be published.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government response to the ‘Improving biodiversity net gain for minor, medium and brownfield development’ consultation and the impact assessment will be published in due course.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government published in May a working paper on site thresholds for planning purposes, including a potential new category of medium development. They are assessing the response to this working paper.
Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department plans to make sites below 0.5 hectares exempt from Biodiversity Net Gain.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government response to the ‘Improving biodiversity net gain for minor, medium and brownfield development’ consultation and the impact assessment will be published in due course.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government published in May a working paper on site thresholds for planning purposes, including a potential new category of medium development. They are assessing the response to this working paper.
Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking with the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero to identify how the UK can meet the latest World Health Organization air quality guidelines, including reducing PM2.5 to 10 micrograms per cubic metre and NO2 to 20 micrograms per cubic metre by 2030.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government has made rapid progress in reducing PM2.5 concentrations and we will be setting new interim targets for 2030 in the forthcoming Environmental Improvement Plan. The World Health Organisation (WHO) air quality guidelines will continue to inform our evidence when considering next steps.
The Government continues to work with local authorities to deliver air quality measures to meet legal limits for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and improve the health of their residents.