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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many trees his Department has planted in (a) Barnsley, (b) South Yorkshire and (c) England in the last 12 months.

The estimated numbers of trees planted with Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs support in the 12 months from April 2017 to March 2018 were:

a) In the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley – 900 trees

b) In South Yorkshire – 4,890 trees

c) In England – 1,763,649trees.

These figures are based on the data used to produce the recent report “Government supported new planting of trees in England; report for 2017-18” available at https://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/Government-supported-new-planting-trees-England-2017-18.pdf/$FILE/Government-supported-new-planting-trees-England-2017-18.pdf, as well as the 2017-18 Annual Report of the Trees for Schools programme.

These figures include new planting of trees and exclude trees planted for restocking or replacement purposes. For the period in question the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs was a source of support for all the recorded trees planted.

Government grants for tree planting are awarded based on applications. In areas where fewer applications have been submitted, fewer trees have been planted.