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

To ask Her Majesty's Government, what steps they are taking to encourage the planting of homegrown stock to address concerns about the importation of tree diseases.

Defra has provided support for the Woodland Trust’s nursery accreditation scheme which helps to promote UK sourced and grown planting stock and the now separate UK Grown in Britain scheme. To reduce the risk of importing tree diseases, Defra encourages a policy of safe sourcing and has been working with the Horticultural Trades Association to launch the ‘Plant Healthy’ management standard in January.