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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to support the Northern Ireland Executive to increase the level of woodland planting to match the rest of the UK.

We are committed to increasing tree planting across the UK to 30,000 hectares per year by the end of this parliament.

Forestry policy is a devolved matter. Many sector organisations operate at UK level, and we continue to engage with the devolved administrations on these issues.

Northern Ireland Environment Minister Edwin Poots announced in 2020 the next stage of the Forests for our Future programme by launching a grant scheme to encourage and help landowners plant woodlands. This will help to meet Northern Ireland’s pledge to plant 18 million trees by 2030 and create 9,000 hectares of new woodland.