Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 18 February 2025 to Question 25797 on Tree Preservation Orders: Bedfordshire, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of keeping a centralised national record of Tree Protection Orders.

Tree Preservation Orders safeguard individual trees or groups of trees of particular value to local amenity.

Local planning authorities have the principal responsibility for applying these protections effectively.

The government has no plans at present to create a central record of their decisions, but we will keep the matter under review.