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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has had recent discussions with the trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, on the potential impact of moving the Kew herbarium to Thames Valley Science Park on the study of (a) biodiversity and (b) extinction.

Defra officials are engaged with Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew on development of the New Herbarium Project proposal.

Kew’s Herbarium collections are some of the largest and most important in the world, holding over seven million vascular plant specimens, collected globally over the last 170 years. The New Herbarium Project aims to deliver a world-leading scientific research and collections facility, both to preserve those collections in appropriately controlled conditions and to ensure the specimens are accessible to Kew’s researchers and the wider international scientific community.

Science is the largest and fastest-growing department at Kew and exploring options for future science research infrastructure is important in anticipation of future changes to global biodiversity.

Defra fully recognise the importance of the Herbarium collections, which Kew maintains both for the nation and as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is supporting Kew’s Digitisation initiatives, which will ensure that 8.25 million plant and fungi specimens are digitised and made free for the public to access by 2026.