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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the interest of the Forestry Commission in Forest Holidays Group Ltd as regards (1) percentage of voting rights and (2) percentage of share ownership; and what changes to these interests have occurred since September 2012.

Forest Holidays is a Joint Venture established under the Regulatory Reform (Forestry) Order 2006. Under the 2006 Agreement between Forest Holidays and the Forestry Commission, the Commission retained a 49% stake in the Joint Venture.

A refinancing agreement was brokered in 2012 where the Forestry Commission interest in Forest Holidays represented 20% of the equity stake in the company.

A further refinancing of Forest Holidays took place in 2017, whereby the Forestry Commission retained its full equity interest as a 13.4% stake in the business.

The 20% voting rights that the Forestry Commission held in 2012 was linked to equity participation, and could be diluted down to a minimum of 10%. Voting rights that the Forestry Commission negotiated as part of the 2017 refinancing are fixed higher than equity share at 17.1% and are not subject to dilution. The 2017 voting rights also carry increased representation and greater access to information than before.