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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the need to increase resilience against threats of disease to ash and oak trees in Somerset, Devon and Cornwall; and what plans they have to provide such resilience.

Defra is committed to protecting our trees from pests and diseases and building the resilience of our trees, woods and forests. In May we published a new Tree Health Resilience Strategy. The strategy sets out a joint action plan for how government and others can work together to address threats to tree health, including threats to ash and oak nationally.

One example of joint action is Action Oak, a hugely important partnership of charities, landowners and government, proactively working together to protect and conserve our oak trees for future generations.