Lord Framlingham – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Framlingham on 2015-01-15.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are taking steps to insist on the implementation of audit trails for all trees imported into the United Kingdom to enable them to be easily traced if necessary.

Lord De Mauley

The Government takes a risk-based approach to prioritise action on plant and tree pests and pathogens to improve resilience. We have produced, working with stakeholders from across industry, Non-Governmental Organisations, and the public, a prioritised plant health risk register of 750 known pests and diseases.

On that basis and where appropriate we have acted to introduce movement restrictions or requirements for importers to notify incoming consignments of particular species, for example for ash, oak, plane, sweet chestnut, pine and elm.