§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Mr. Elliot Morley)Following last year's review of the administrative arrangements for forestry since devolution, I decided, with the Forestry Ministers in Scotland and Wales that the functions of Forest Enterprise, a Forestry Commission executive agency which operates across Great Britain, should be transferred to separate bodies in each country. Forest Enterprise ceased to operate on 31 March 2003 and a new agency called Forest Enterprise England, responsible for the management of the Forestry Commission estate in England, came into being on 1 April 2003. The agency will work to the targets set for Forest Enterprise in the Forestry Commission Corporate Plan for England.
Following a separate review of the Commission's Forest Research agency, Ministers agreed that a single body, covering the whole of Britain, continued to be the best way forward. The agency's five-year review concluded that it enjoyed strong support from its stakeholders, particularly for the quality of its research, scientific services and development work. New framework documents for these 2 agencies will be published shortly.