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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what tree planting targets were in place in each year since 2010; and how many hectares of tree planting took place in each of those years.

Between 2010 and 2015 there was no specific target for woodland creation. The 2015-17 Government committed to plant eleven million trees over the course of that Parliament, then assumed to run to 2020. The subsequent Government (2017-19) made the same commitment, together with another to plant one million trees in our towns and cities. The 2018 25 Year Environment Plan included an aspiration to increase woodland cover in England to 12% by 2060, through planting 180,000 hectares of new woodland by 2042. We have now committed to accelerate planting rates to 30,000 hectares per year across the UK by the end of this Parliament.

The Forestry Commission produces statistics on new planting of woodland for the UK. These are Official Statistics produced to meet the standards of the Code of Practice for Statistics, and can be found on the Forest Research web site together with background information at: https://www.forestresearch.gov.uk/tools-and-resources/statistics/forestry-statistics/

The area of new planting (woodland creation) for the UK and England in each year since 2010, taken from the published statistics is shown below.

New planting of woodland (thousands of hectares)

Source: Forestry Commission, Forestry England, Scottish Forestry, Forestry and Land Scotland, Natural Resources Wales, Forest Service, Welsh Government, grant schemes with estimates for areas newly planted without grant aid.