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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the (a) workforce capacity and (b) resources available to deliver large-scale community tree planting programmes.

In 2024, Defra published independent research by the ICF - UK Forestry Workforce & Skills Research - KT0201. It showed that the forestry workforce had grown steadily over the past decade, with around 24,000 people employed in the core forestry sector as of 2023 and that continued investment in forestry apprenticeships and workforce development tools were required.

The Forestry-Sector-Skills-Plan-2025.pdf, published in early 2025, identifies specific actions such as the Level 6 Professional Foresters apprenticeship to address the gap in skills in the sector. Defra and Forestry Commission are now working with key stakeholders to deliver the specific actions it sets out.

Sapling availability has also been addressed through this project. Forestry Commission publish the Tree Supply Report and Tree Nursery Directories annually to bring visibility to the market. Defra and Forestry Commission work closely with the nurseries to assess trends in the market. In the 24/25 planting season, 161 million saplings were produced which is around 1 million more than the previous year. The Nature for Climate Fund funded grants this year of up to: £2 million capital investment in tree production through the Tree Production Capital Grant; £1.5 million supporting innovation in tree production through the Tree Production Innovation Fund and £0.6 million supporting tree seed sourcing through the Seed Sourcing Grant.