§ Mr. Wrayasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if his Department will be making a substantial contribution to the royal botanic gardens at Kew to offset the recent loss of old and valuable trees.
§ Mr. Donald ThompsonAs indicated by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Environment in his statement on 21 October, I have already decided to make special additional help available to Kew to assist in the process of recovery and restoration. But much of the value of what has been lost lay in the age, beauty, rarity or historical association of the trees concerned. It will take the passage of much time and a great deal of dedicated work to overcome this. I know that the director and his staff are already making every effort to do so and should like to pay tribute to them. We do not yet have a full assessment against which to judge what additional contribution would be appropriate.