Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department plans to offer funding for the observation of tree health after the UK has left the EU.

Our extensive tree health surveillance programme involves government, industry, conservation groups and the public. It includes aerial and ground based surveillance activity by the Forestry Commission; risk based inspections at nurseries and retail sites to detect any issues at an early stage; and the ‘Observatree’ network of volunteer tree health surveyors trained by Forest Research and the Woodland Trust.

Funding for this approach will continue after the UK has left the EU.