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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions her Department has had with its EU counterparts on meeting targets for the (a) illegal and (b) sustainable timber trade; and if she will make a statement.

Defra is committed to tackling the trade in illegal timber. We implement the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR), which makes it an offence to place illegally logged timber on the EU market for the first time, and the EU Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Regulation, which aims to combat illegal logging and improve the supply of legal timber to the EU. Defra officials are engaged in coordinating implementation of the EUTR and FLEGT Regulation across the EU, and in the EU-wide reviews of these Regulations.

The Government’s Timber Procurement Policy (TPP) requires central government departments, executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies to procure timber and timber products that are both legal and sustainable. Information on the TPP has been shared with other interested EU Member States.