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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, for what reasons the Department did not meet the target to plant 11 million trees by 2015; and if he will make a statement.

There was no target to plant 11 million trees by 2015. The 2010 Conservative manifesto said “in addition to ongoing woodland creation, we will launch a national tree planting campaign, planting up to one million new trees in the next Parliament.” In the years from 2010-2015, it is estimated that through CAP funds, approximately 11 million trees were planted. The 2015 and 2017 manifestos both committed to planting 11 million trees over the course of the expected five-year parliaments to which the manifestos related.