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

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the numbers of recorded ancient and veteran trees in England are increasing or declining.

The Government does not have a statutory duty to collate numbers of ancient and veteran trees. The Natural England and Forestry Commission Standing Advice on Ancient Woodland, Ancient and Veteran Trees, available at gov.uk/guidance/ancient-woodland-and-veteran-trees-protection-surveys-licences, directs users to the Woodland Trust's Ancient Tree Inventory which is collated by volunteers around the country: https://ati.woodlandtrust.org.uk/. The Ancient Tree Inventory currently lists 160,000 ancient, veteran and notable trees across the UK.

In 2019, we also announced that Government would give the Woodland Trust £210,000 to work with Natural England to update the Ancient Woodland Inventory which identifies over 53,000 ancient woodland sites in England.