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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate she has made of the cost to the public purse of tackling the recent outbreak of ash dieback disease; and if she will make a statement.

We are monitoring and managing ash dieback and have invested over £6 million into research.

A surveillance programme involving Government, industry, conservation groups and the public enables us to monitor the disease and to target resources effectively. Our annual programme of surveillance costs over £40k per annum

Investing in research on the development of tolerant trees is one of our key commitments in response to the disease. Ash trees have a very wide genetic diversity, and have the potential for great levels of resistance compared to other tree species that have been affected by diseases.

The Government-funded research and screening trial of 155,000 ash saplings is unprecedented in its scope and has now identified native ash trees that show tolerance to ash dieback, raising the possibility of using selective breeding to develop strains of trees that are tolerant to the disease.