Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the Government's progress in increasing tree coverage in the UK.
The Forestry Commission produces statistics on new planting of woodland by area in the UK. These are Official Statistics produced to meet the standards of the Code of Practice for Statistics.
Woodland area statistics can be found on the Forest Research website together with background information at: www.forestresearch.gov.uk/tools-and-resources/statistics/forestry-statistics.
The area of new planting (woodland creation) for the UK in each of the last five years, taken from the published statistics, which are reported in hectares, is shown below. The total area of woodland in the UK was 3,187 thousand hectares in 2019, covering 13.1% of the land area.
New planting of woodland (thousands of hectares)
Year (ending 31 March) | New planting |
2014-15 | 10.30 |
2015-16 | 5.65 |
2016-17 | 6.51 |
2017-18 | 9.09 |
2018-19 | 13.40 |
Source: Forestry Commission, Forestry England, Scottish Forestry, Forestry and Land Scotland, Natural Resources Wales, Forest Service grant schemes.