Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department has made an assessment of the number of virgin forests that have been affected by biomass production in the past three years; and if he will make a statement.

The Department has not made a specific assessment of the number of virgin forests that have been affected by biomass production in the past three years.

However to receive government support for heat and power generation from biomass in the UK, all biomass must comply with the UK’s sustainability criteria, which includes demonstrating that wood is supplied from legal and sustainable sources.