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 prevent deforestation in the UK.

As forestry is a devolved matter this answer relates to England only.

The Government is committed to accelerating new woodland planting and has a number of manifesto commitments to support afforestation in England, including the planting of eleven million trees and a further one million trees in our towns and cities by 2022.

The Government also has a number of schemes to support afforestation including the Woodland Creation Grant under Countryside Stewardship, the Woodland Carbon Fund, and the Woodland Creation Planning Grant.

In January the Prime Minister announced through the 25 Year Environment Plan the support of the new Northern Forest, which will see 50 million trees planted by 2042.