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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to his Department's Consultation on Protecting and Enhancing England’s Trees and Woodlands, if he will ensure that appropriate measures include local authority tree officers in the duty to consult.

The Government has committed in the 25 Year Environment Plan to introduce a duty on local authorities to consult with local communities when a street tree is to be felled.

Defra’s public consultation on ‘Protecting and Enhancing England’s Trees and Woodlands’ was launched on 30th December. It covers three measures we hope to include in the Environment Bill: a duty on LAs to consult on felling street trees (‘the duty to consult’), a duty on LAs to report on their tree felling and planting, and changes to the Forestry Act to give Forestry Commission more powers to tackle illegal tree felling. We are also consulting on best practice guidance for Tree and Woodland Strategies. The consultation is open until the 28 February 2019.

A stakeholder workshop was held in Birmingham on 8 January 2019, which included representatives from local authorities as well as the Metropolitan Tree Officers Association, the National Tree Officers Association, the London Tree Officers Association and the Arboricultural Association. Defra welcomes further engagement from tree officers and local authorities in developing the duty to consult.