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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department sets targets for the number of trees planted in the UK each year.

The Government has committed to bring tree planting rates across the UK up to 30,000 hectares per year by the end of this parliament in May 2024. The England Trees Action Plan set out our target of trebling woodland creation in England to contribute to this, and we will continue to work with the Devolved Administrations to deliver a UK-wide step change in tree planting and establishment.

The England Trees Action Plan is supported by an intended £500 million from the Nature for Climate Fund. In the recently launched Net Zero Strategy, the Government also announced that it will boost the Nature for Climate fund with a further £124 million of new money, ensuring total spend of more than £750 million by 2025 on peat restoration, woodland creation and management – above and beyond what was promised in the manifesto. As set out in the Net Zero Strategy, we will consult on a statutory tree planting target to provide further long-term clarity.