THREATS TO UK TREES FROM INVASIVE PESTS AND DISEASES

That this House recognises the threat to the UK's native trees, woods and forests from the growing number of imported, invasive pests and diseases; expresses its concerns that the number of new pests and diseases, such as ash dieback, acute and chronic oak decline, chestnut blight, oak processionary moth andphytophthora ramorum, as recorded in the Countryside Restoration Trust's research report, has doubled over the past decade; welcomes the Government's ban on the import of ash trees to tackle ash dieback, and the Tree Health and Plant Biosecurity Action Plan launched in October 2011; but calls for increased resources to ensure both a rapid response to other such outbreaks and greater screening and control of imports to minimise this vector of disease; and further calls on the Government to require the relevant horticultural sectors to contribute more to the costs of inspection services and forestry research.