Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, in the context of wood pellets being sourced from Estonia and burnt at the Drax power station, what his policy is on the minimum number of trees per hectare that need to be replanted for a forest to count as sustainably managed.

In accordance with the Government’s strict sustainability criteria, biomass needs to be sourced from areas managed in a way that is consistent with sustainable forest management practices, irrespective of the sourcing location. Further information on sustainable forest management that informs the UK’s sustainability criteria can be found at:

https://foresteurope.org/workstreams/sustainable-forest-management/#.