Plants: Imports

(asked on 28th April 2020) - View Source

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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact on plant disease of trees and shrubs brought from mainland Europe to the UK.


This question was answered on 13th May 2020

The UK has robust controls in place to protect against plant pest and disease threats. Horizon scanning for new and emerging threats is carried out continuously and the results are considered monthly by all UK Plant Health Authorities, facilitated by the Defra-chaired UK Plant Health Risk Group. The UK Plant Health Risk Register (UKPHRR) is the principal screening tool used for this purpose and all outputs are published. This includes an assessment of the likely impacts of pests screened, including those which are present in mainland Europe but not in the UK. The UKPHRR also includes details of pests which have been introduced to the UK from other countries, including in Europe, assessing their potential for further spread and resulting impacts. The UKPHRR now has more than 1000 entries, informing decision making and prioritisation in relation to plant health threats. Where necessary more detailed assessments are made for risks identified via the UKPHRR through Pest Risk Assessments (PRAs). These PRAs will be used as the basis for UK plant heath legislation and UK legislation is updated frequently to protect against new and revised threats.

The UK is proud of its world-leading plant biosecurity standards and we have recently introduced additional national measures against key threats including Xylella fastidiosa and the Emerald ash borer. These have introduced additional controls on the import of hosts of Xylella which are considered to pose a high risk of harbouring the pathogen. These requirements are based on the outcome of an update to the UK PRA for this pathogen and include details on potential impacts should this pathogen be introduced, including on plants from Europe.

The Tree Health Resilience Strategy sets out the current state of knowledge on tree health in England and provides a framework for management of our trees, including horizon scanning for new and emerging threats associated with plant imports from mainland Europe and beyond. The latest Woodland Natural Capital Accounts, published by the Office for National Statistics in February 2020, classify 85% of woodlands in Great Britain as in a favourable condition for tree health.

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