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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to prevent degradation and deforestation of woodland.

Our Forestry and Woodland Policy Statement, published in January 2013, set out our three overall policy priorities. These are to protect, improve and expand our woodland resource. We are now implementing the actions we proposed to achieve these objectives. We have made tree and plant health a high priority as demonstrated in our recent Tree Heath Management Plan; and we are seeing increases in the area of woodland under management. Taken together with relevant regulatory frameworks regarding the felling of trees, they will significantly help to protect our woodlands from degradation and deforestation.