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

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of local authorities which implement a policy of repeat tree inspections looking out for unsafe trees and tree diseases such as ash dieback.

The Occupiers’ Liability Act imposes a duty of care on landowners, including Local Authorities, to manage their tree stock and make safe any trees which pose a risk to public safety.

Government has provided Local Authorities with a range of guidance to help them manage their tree stock, including a Common Sense Guide to the Risk Management of Trees, an Ash Dieback Toolkit which has been downloaded over 20,000 times and a Trees and Woodland Strategy toolkit published in December 2022.

The frequency of tree inspections at a local level will be guided by risk, including the proximity of the tree to people and property. Defra does not collect data on the frequency of Local Authority tree inspections.