Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions he has had with Network Rail on tree felling during the nesting season.

I have spoken to Mark Carne, Chief Executive of Network Rail, about their approach to vegetation management. Network Rail is the fourth largest land owner in the United Kingdom, and in the past four years has made significant progress in the way it manages vegetation growing alongside train tracks.

My officials have also spoken to the Tree Council, and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. It is clear that Network Rail wants to get this right, and there is a ‘gold standard’ of vegetation management on some lines.

I am concerned however that tree management is carried out during the nesting season, and it is for this reason I am commissioning a review into Network Rail’s vegetation management, and have asked Network Rail to suspend all felling during the current nesting season, except where it is safety critical.