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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Tree Action Plan intends to support the restoration of ancient woodland, particularly on smaller plantations on ancient woodland sites or sites that are harder to restore.

The Government will continue to support the restoration of ancient woodland. Woodlands as small as 0.5ha are now eligible for the Countryside Stewardship supplements “Manage and restore Plantations on Ancient Woodland Sites (PAWs)” and “Manage native woodland including Ancient Semi-Natural Woodlands”, ensuring support is available to landowners and managers of smaller ancient woodlands.

In 2025, we also updated our Countryside Stewardship offer by simplifying our baseline Woodland Improvement grant.

These steps will help to bring more of our smaller ancient woodlands into restoration and management.