Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many hectares of plantations on ancient woodland sites have had licences granted for clearfell and replanting with non-native trees in the last five years.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Forestry Commission is the regulator for the legal felling of trees in England under the provisions in the Forestry Act. Most felling licences issued require felled trees or areas of woodland to be replaced by replanting or allowed to regenerate. The exception to this is a thinning licence, where sufficient woodland cover is retained so as not to require restocking.
When considering a felling licence application the Forestry Commission will judge the proposals against the UK Forestry Standard, the government’s approach to sustainable forestry. This is available on GOV.UK at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-uk-forestry-standard. This standard encompasses the impacts on biodiversity and recognises the importance of priority habitats and species. This is why a felling licence also includes advice and guidance on additional issues a landowner needs to take into account.
The restocking conditions in a felling licence are put in place to help meet the aims of the management of the site through good silvicultural practice. While the Forestry Commission does advise on a suitable species mix there are no provisions in the Forestry Act to mandate the source of trees and whether they are native or non-native.
The guide to Managing England’s woodlands in a climate emergency, advises to manage ancient woodlands in a manner which conserves important biodiversity and heritage features. Greater diversification of species and origin of stands is advised, with a focus on southerly provenances of native species. Due to the unknown nature of acceleration of climate change, management intervention may need to be more frequent in order to preserve these rare habitats effectively. This is available on GOV.UK at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/managing-englands-woodlands-in-a-climate-emergency.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to bring the majority of Plantation on Ancient Woodland Sites into restoration by 2030.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Keepers of Time policy, updated in 2021, sets out our principles and objectives to protect and improve ancient and native woodland and trees for future generations. Restoring ancient woodlands that are ecologically degraded is a high priority for the Government. This includes restoring plantations on ancient woodland sites by gradually transforming stands from non-native planted species to native species.
We provide support and incentives through Countryside Stewardship and the HS2 Woodland Fund to restore plantations on ancient woodland sites (PAWS). We are currently considering how best to support and incentivise PAWS restoration in future environmental land management schemes while making sure they continue to provide owners with income. We support Forestry England to manage ancient woodland sites across the nation’s forests to improve their ecological value and ultimately restore all plantations on ancient woodland sites to resilient native woodland.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what (a) his Department's budget for and (b) the amount spent on the planting of trees was in each year since 2010.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Data on tree-specific funding is only available from 2020, when the Nature for Climate Tree Programme was established. Since then, Defra has had a capital spend (CDEL) of £232 million on planting trees in England.
The planting of trees has also been funded by Countryside Stewardship payments. Since 2016, £120 million has been claimed planting and managing trees and for managing and enhancing woodlands.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many and what proportion of applicants to the Landscape Recovery scheme were entering land on which they are (a) tenants and (b) owners.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Landscape Recovery offers farmers and land managers the opportunity to co-design a bespoke, long-term agreement to produce environmental and climate goods whilst supporting environmentally sustainable domestic food production across landscape-scale projects.
Landscape Recovery Round 1 supports 22 projects. Project areas range between 500 and 5,000 hectares, covering a total of over 40,000 hectares. Round 2 is expected to support 34 projects, covering a total of over 200,000 hectares. Rounds 1 and 2 include over 250 and over 700 land managers, respectively. The majority of projects currently in Round 1 involve at least one tenant, and it is expected that over three quarters of Round 2 projects will include tenants. We want to make Landscape Recovery work in a range of contexts, especially where there is a diversity of land managers. We are closely monitoring how the scheme works for tenants in light of the findings and recommendations of the Rock Review.
We have a legal duty to assess the impact of all our Environmental Land Management schemes, including Landscape Recovery, on food production. All Landscape Recovery projects are required to assess their impact on food production in detail during the project development phase. We also introduced a food production criterion at the application phase in Round 2, through which we assessed how bidders were taking into consideration food production in their plans, mitigating any negative impact where possible and supporting sustainable food production.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the number of hectares of land managed by each applicant to the Landscape Recovery scheme.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Landscape Recovery offers farmers and land managers the opportunity to co-design a bespoke, long-term agreement to produce environmental and climate goods whilst supporting environmentally sustainable domestic food production across landscape-scale projects.
Landscape Recovery Round 1 supports 22 projects. Project areas range between 500 and 5,000 hectares, covering a total of over 40,000 hectares. Round 2 is expected to support 34 projects, covering a total of over 200,000 hectares. Rounds 1 and 2 include over 250 and over 700 land managers, respectively. The majority of projects currently in Round 1 involve at least one tenant, and it is expected that over three quarters of Round 2 projects will include tenants. We want to make Landscape Recovery work in a range of contexts, especially where there is a diversity of land managers. We are closely monitoring how the scheme works for tenants in light of the findings and recommendations of the Rock Review.
We have a legal duty to assess the impact of all our Environmental Land Management schemes, including Landscape Recovery, on food production. All Landscape Recovery projects are required to assess their impact on food production in detail during the project development phase. We also introduced a food production criterion at the application phase in Round 2, through which we assessed how bidders were taking into consideration food production in their plans, mitigating any negative impact where possible and supporting sustainable food production.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many hectares of trees have been planted in each year since 2005.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Forestry Commission produces a time series of statistics on all new planting of woodland for the UK. These can be found in Forestry Statistics on the Forest Research website. These statistics are reported for each financial year in thousands of hectares. The latest available figures are for 2022-23 published in September 2023.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which local authorities (a) charged for collection of garden waste and b) provided a free garden waste service in 2023/24.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs does not hold this data.
Under section 45(3) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 waste collection authorities are permitted to charge a reasonable amount for the collection of garden waste.
Local Authorities are best placed to determine the effective delivery of local services.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what information his Department holds on the number of local authorities that charged an annual fee of (a) less than £30, (b) £30.01- £40, (c) £40.01- £50, (d) £50.01- £75, (e) £75.01- £100.00 and (f) £100.01 or more for the collection of garden waste in the 2023-24 financial year.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs does not hold this data.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will publish the business case considered by the trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew for moving the herbarium to the Thames Valley Science Park.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
No final funding decision has been made in relation to the new herbarium.
Business cases are not routinely published.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the level of (a) damage and (b) loss posed to the contents of the herbarium at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew by a relocation.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
No final funding decision has been made in relation to the new herbarium.
Kew have advised that they have an active programme of safely and professionally shipping specimens all over the world; moving the specimens will be in line with the established and ongoing practice.