§ Baroness ROBSON of KIDDINGTONasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they have a policy of marking elms as they die with the year of death so that they may be felled in a consecutive order and within a period of five years of death.
§ Lord MELCHETT: No such policy is applied. Apart from the considerable cost of instituting, administering and enforcing such a scheme, the sequence of felling is affected by factors other than time. For example, dead trees which adjoin public spaces or buildings and constitute a danger must be felled quickly even if only recently dead. Priority must also be given to the felling of trees of marketable quality for which it is hoped the Forestry Commission's Elm Marketing Group will stimulate a demand.