Asked by: Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, of the target of 5,000 hectares of trees planted, what proportion were planted in (1) 2020, and (2) 2021; and what the delivery target will be for 2022.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
The Government committed to trebling woodland creation rates to 30,000 hectares per year in the UK by the end of this Parliament. The Government aims to at least treble woodland creation in England over that time period to contribute to that target and will maintain new planting at least at this level from 2025 onwards.
After centuries of deforestation, tree cover in the UK reached its low point in 1924, with only 5% of the UK forested after the First World War. Now, after a century of effort, we have brought woodland cover back up to 13% of our land. The areas of new planting (woodland creation) taken from the Forestry Commission’s Forestry Statistics are shown below:
Year (ending 31 March) | New planting in England (thousand hectares) |
2019-20 | 2.34 |
2020-21 | 2.06 |
Since 2020-21 there are also quarterly interim reports (provisional statistics) on new planting of woodland published in the Forestry Commission Key Performance Indicators. In the first half of 2021-22 there were 856 hectares of new planting of woodland in England. We expect further trees to be planted throughout this tree planting season which ends in March 2022, and our projections show we are currently on the right trajectory to meet our commitments.
In England, we are boosting the existing £640 million Nature for Climate Fund with a further £124 million of new money, ensuring total spend of more than £750 million by 2025 on peat restoration, woodland creation and management - above and beyond what was promised in the manifesto.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many hectares of broadleaf woodland has been planted at an appropriate spacing and with protections from damage from grey squirrels and deer in each year since 2010.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Forestry Commission does not hold that data. However, it produces Official Statistics on new planting of woodland in England annually for each financial year in thousands of hectares. Most new planting in the period since 2010 has been supported by Forestry Commission-facilitated grants. Such grant-supported new planting is subject to inspection and there is an expectation that recipients of ongoing maintenance payments will support the careful establishment of their woodland, including appropriate protection from pests such as grey squirrels or deer, which may include tree guards. The areas for new planting of broadleaved woodland are published on Forestry Statistics.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what policy Network Rail follows for the felling of trees alongside railway lines; what assessment they have made of the carbon impact of this policy; and what policy they have on replacing felled trees.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Network Rail published its Biodiversity Action Plan in December 2020, committing to achieve biodiversity net gain by 2035, and setting out how it will manage lineside vegetation sustainably for safety, performance, the environment, and its customers and neighbours. Network Rail must balance these objectives to run a safe and reliable rail network whilst also supporting and enhancing lineside biodiversity. In some places it will be necessary to remove trees and other habitats that are not compatible with railway operations, but in other places Network Rail will establish habitats through planting and sustainable management. Following recent surveys and inspections of the estate, Network Rail is developing vegetation and habitat management plans to ensure any necessary vegetation management takes place at the best time of year. Network Rail is also developing a sustainable land use strategic framework which will consider aspects including carbon impacts to support net zero 2050.
Network Rail manages a vast estate, with an estimated six million trees, and approximately 23% woodland coverage, substantially higher than the average woodland coverage across Britain. In 2019, Network Rail pledged £1m to plant trees in communities across England over a four-year period with over 90,000 planted in the first planting season. Network Rail is also working with the Forestry Commission on a feasibility study for tree planting on land neighbouring the railway.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans he has to protect public rights of access where tree planting, funded by Government grants, takes place on open access land.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK Forestry Standard clearly states that existing rights of access must be respected and not obstructed. In England and Wales, responsible access must be allowed on mapped access land, including woodland dedicated under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, unless a Direction is in place to restrict or exclude access. All government supported planting, such as under our England Woodland Creation Offer (EWCO) and Countryside Stewardship Scheme, must comply with these requirements.
Our Woodland Creation Partnerships will maintain existing public access on land that is planted and explore ways to enhance access provision. Additionally, we are working with land managers to promote access provision within their woodland plantations, for example via voluntary EWCO access grants.
Through the England Trees Action Plan, we are committed to ensuring the provision of safe and appropriate public access as a feature of as many woodlands as possible and to work with landowners and woodland users to develop and implement a plan to improve the quantity, quality, and permanency of public access to new and existing woodlands.
Asked by: David Warburton (Independent - Somerton and Frome)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will publish a table showing the number of (a) tree equivalents burnt at the Drax power station and (b) trees planted in the UK in each of the last five years.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Department does not model tree equivalents of biomass used by power generators. Ofgem reports volumes of biomass fuel, such as wood pellets, used by power generators on a per-tonne basis.
UK tree planting statistics, held by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), are reported in terms of area (hectares). The most recent data was published on 30th September (https://www.forestresearch.gov.uk/tools-and-resources/statistics/forestry-statistics/forestry-statistics-2021/1-woodland-area-planting/ and https://www.forestresearch.gov.uk/documents/8144/Ch1_Woodland_FS2021_kRWbQlW.xlsx). UK tree planting over the past five years was as follows: 6,520 ha (2016-17); 9,050 ha (2017-18), 13,540 ha (2018-19), 13,660 ha (2020-21) and 13,290 ha (2020-21)
Asked by: Baroness Parminter (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of labour shortages in the ornamental horticulture sector on UK tree growers; and whether labour shortages in this sector will affect their ability to meet their tree planting targets.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
The England Trees Action Plan (ETAP) sets out our long-term ambition to increase woodland creation and management in England. As part of this, we want to support a thriving nursery sector, and are working with them to upskill and expand our domestic workforce and monitor labour requirements.
Planting, establishing and managing trees in rural and urban settings requires skills, technical knowledge, and people to put those into practice. The ETAP includes support for higher technical and professional education routes into the forestry sector, improved links with allied sectors such as arboriculture, agriculture and horticulture, and the creation of a new Forestry Skills Action Plan for England that will raise the profile of forestry careers amongst school leavers and career changers.
The ETAP also committed to funding to support UK public and private sector nurseries and seed suppliers to enhance quantity, quality, diversity and biosecurity of domestic tree production through means including capital grants and support to augment investment and stimulate innovation.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure that local authorities are (a) set and (b) reach tree planting targets.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We recognise the importance of local authorities (LAs) in achieving the Government's tree planting targets and delivering the vision set out in the England Trees Action Plan (ETAP).
LAs are increasingly setting their own tree planting targets to support their own net zero ambitions. A recent Forestry Commission study of 82 top tier LAs revealed that 70% (57 LAs) have included 'planting trees and woodlands' as part of their net zero strategies.
Defra supports LAs' tree planting activity through several of the Nature for Climate Fund Grant schemes, such as the England Woodland Creation Offer, the Local Authorities Treescape Fund and the Urban Tree Challenge Fund (UTCF). Whilst the latest round of applications for UTCF closed in July, over the next two years this fund will provide up to £6 million for planting around 44,000 large trees in towns and cities, plus necessary maintenance payments. We are also supporting the creation of two new Woodland Creation Partnerships in Cornwall and Northumberland, and two new Community Forests in Plymouth and South Devon and in the North East, working closely with the relevant LAs in those areas
To further support LAs that may have less capacity and capability to develop their own targets, we have committed in the ETAP to produce guidance for LAs to develop their own local tree and woodland strategies.
Finally, LAs are also expected to play a central part in the delivery of the new Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRSs), a new system of spatial strategies for nature, to be delivered through the Environment Bill, which will cover the whole of England. We anticipate that LNRSs will become a key mechanism through which appropriate land for woodland creation is identified at a local level which in turn will support the delivery of national tree planting targets.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to rollout community payback by offenders.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Community Payback is the term used to describe any work done as part of an unpaid work requirement made by the Courts. Unpaid work is the main punitive disposal for community-based sentences, its purpose is to punish offenders for breaking the law whilst also allowing individuals to make reparations to their local communities for their crimes.
This Government is investing £93m so that communities can benefit from a record-breaking 8 million hours of impactful and demanding unpaid work each year. This funding will allow us to rejuvenate our unpaid work offer, by recruiting additional staff and refreshing and expanding our transport fleet. We are working with large charities and organisations, Police and Crime Commissioners and local authorities to make sure that communities have their say in how unpaid work should be used in their area. This includes placements with organisations such as the Canal and River Trust and Forestry England. Other national initiatives will include a tree planting project, helping to support the Government’s wider sustainability objectives.
As part of this we are consulting a range of further potential voluntary sector partners to identify unpaid work placements that will develop work ready skills and offer vocational training, helping offenders to integrate into society and promote future desistance from crime.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to (a) plant more trees and (b) preserve existing tree species in the UK.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government has committed to increasing tree planting in the UK to 30,000 hectares per year by the end of this parliament.
As supported in both the England Trees Action Plan (ETAP), published in May and most recently the Net Zero Strategy, published in October, we have set out various commitments to boost tree planting, establishment and management in England; support a thriving green economy through more private investment in trees and woodlands; and bring trees closer to people. In England, we are boosting the existing £640 million Nature for Climate Fund with a further £124 million of new money, ensuring total spend of more than £750 million by 2025 on peat restoration, woodland creation and management – above and beyond what was promised in the manifesto.
We continue to support activities to enhance production, processing and supply of UK tree seeds from a wider range of species and provenances. One hundred percent of trees planted by Forestry England in a forestry setting are UK grown. This has been the position for the last three years.
As set out in ETAP we have committed to several increases in tree protection in England. This includes launching three Forestry Innovation Funds to restore vulnerable woodland habitats and help woodlands adapt to a changing climate and recover from the impacts of pests and diseases. Additionally, through the Environment Bill we will reform the current felling license regime to crack down on illegal tree felling, as well as introducing a duty to consult.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the number of trees that have been planted in England in 2021 to date.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Forestry Commission produces Official Statistics on England's woodland area annually for each financial year in thousands of hectares.
The latest available figures are for 2020-21, reporting 2.06 thousand hectares of new tree planting in England.
For all new planting of woodland since 2020-21, there is also a published estimate of the approximate number of trees this represents, available from the Forestry Commission Key Performance Indicators. These are available for the first quarter of 2021-22, reporting 0.47 thousand hectares (equivalent to 926,000 trees) of new tree planting in England. The planting season is over the winter so is only just starting for 2021-22.
Planting rates in 2020-21 were impacted by Covid-19. The England Trees Action Plan published in May 2021 stated our aim to at least treble tree planting rates in England by end of this Parliament.