Select committee: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Recommendation 11
Third Report - Tree planting
Published 21 Mar 2022
Paragraph 71
Addressed to Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee Tree Planting and Woodlands All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
To meet the Government’s tree planting goals, we are going to need to import seeds and young trees until domestic capacity increases. This carries the risks of pests and diseases being introduced. We welcome the work Defra and the Forestry Commission are doing to tighten biosecurity and the additional funding that has been provided to support this work. However, we heard concerns that delays in introducing checks at the border, with checks instead occurring at the place of destination, increases the risk of pests and diseases being spread before they are detected. We recommend that Defra works with the Animal & Plant Health Agency to review the import controls are in place to ensure they prevent the spread of plant diseases and pests. The Government must ensure that all checks on imports of plants and trees are in place at the border from 1 July 2022.
From: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Third Report - Tree planting (HC 356), paragraph 71, 21 March 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 20 June 2022 (deadline 21 May 2022).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government 'welcomes the recommendations' in the Committee's report and says that in many cases it 'has already taken action, or is planning action' to address them.
- On annual targets, it sets a planned England planting profile rising from 2,500 hectares in 2021/22 to 7,500 hectares in 2024/25, which it says is back loaded to allow new grants to become embedded.
- On the Tenancy Working Group, it says "We agree with the recommendation" and has included tree planting by tenant farmers within the group's remit.
- On Wykeham nursery, it gives no commitment to review the closure. It says the decision was "carefully considered" and will not affect tree planting ambitions, and that the site is available to lease by competitive tender.
- On seasonal worker visas, it says 30,000 visas will be available in 2022, to be kept under review with potential to increase by 10,000 "if necessary". It says a nine-month visa "runs counter to the scheme being seasonal only".