§ Mr. Ron Daviesasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what is the total area of land now owned by the Forestry Commission; and how this compares with the figure 12 months ago.
§ Mr. John MacKayThe Forestry Commission does not own any land. Ownership of such land in England, Scotland and Wales is vested in the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Secretary of State for Scotland and the Secretary of State for Wales respectively, and it is formally placed at the disposal of the forestry commissioners to manage in accordance with their statutory duties.
On 31 March 1986 the commission managed a total of approximately 1,166,000 hectares of land. The comparable figure for 31 March 1985 was 1,181,000 hectares.