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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what her policy is in relation to the public forest estate; and what assessment she has made of the implications for that policy of the recommendations of the 2012 Independent Panel on Forestry.

The Government’s policy on the future of the public forest estate is set out in its Forestry and Woodlands Policy Statement of January 2013. The Government is committed to maintaining the public forest estate in public ownership and to establishing a new operationally-independent public body to manage the estate for the long-term benefit of people, nature and the economy.

The Forestry and Woodlands Policy Statement was firmly based on the Independent Panel on Forestry’s recommendations, including those in relation to the public forest estate.