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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what support his Department is giving to the Woodland Trust to assist them in the recovery work on the Smithhills Estate.

I visited Smithills earlier this year where I planted one of the first trees with the Woodland Trust.

Defra officials have been informed of the damage to Smithills, which is one of the many sites that together will form the Northern Forest.