Environment, Food and Rural Affairs CommitteeENVIRONMENT FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE TREE HEALTH AND PLANT BIOSECURITY INQUIRY

Note responding to questions by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Introduction

This note sets out Defra’s responses to the questions set out in a letter from the Committee of 12 November 2013. It represents a co-ordinated Government response and contains input from the Forestry Commission and the Food and Environment Research Agency (Fera).

1. Will there be a consultation draft of the Plant Health Risk Register to allow essential stakeholder engagement? If so, when will the consultation draft be published?

Stakeholder engagement has been a key element of the process to develop the risk register and will continue to be so. Stakeholders were involved in an extensive series of workshops to contribute their expertise to the production of the risk register and a consultation draft was shared with them in October. Stakeholders were supportive of the work to date, and provided detailed comments which are currently being considered. We want to make the register as open as possible so will be making it publicly available in the New Year once we have taken account of the input from stakeholders.

In addition to publishing information arising from the risk register the current process of consulting on all risk assessments produced in response to new and revised pest threats will continue. Comments and additional evidence will be welcome at any stage to help keep the risk register up to date. Following initial discussions with stakeholders, we are looking at how best to keep them involved with the UK Plant Health Risk Group process, which is the means by which pest threats are assessed and actions identified, using the outputs from the risk register and risk assessments.

2. How often will the Risk Register be reviewed and updated?

The risk register will be reviewed and updated on a monthly basis by experts through meetings of a UK Plant Health Risk Group. This group includes representatives from all UK plant health authorities (including the Forestry Commission and Devolved Administrations). Stakeholders are also involved through the consultation process. The group undertakes horizon scanning and reviews developments in the UK (eg interceptions of pests and diseases) to propose entries for the risk register or amendments to existing entries. In addition the risk register will be subject to a more extensive review with stakeholders on a quarterly basis. The risk register will be maintained by Fera and additional resources have been made available to facilitate the review and update process.

Each month, the Chief Plant Health Officer provides advice to Ministers on issues emerging from the risk register. These are discussed by Ministers and senior officials at a monthly biosecurity meeting, which provides an opportunity to consider the current top threats to biosecurity. Risks to plant health are discussed alongside those to animal health, bee health and from non-native invasive species.

3. What is the expected overall timeframe for implementing recommendations 3–8 of the Task Force Report?

We have accepted the third recommendation of the taskforce and recruitment of a Chief Plant Health Officer is underway. We are currently working to develop a plant health strategy to be published early next year. This will set out our proposals for an enhanced plant health programme to improve the protection of our plants.

This strategy will be informed by the taskforce recommendations and the enhanced programme of work will both continue to deliver the recommendations on contingency planning and risk assessment as well as delivering against recommendations four to eight.

4. What are Defra’s priorities for the review, simplification and strengthening of relevant legislation and regulation?

Through the work of the UK Plant Health Risk Group we review new and revised plant health threats on a monthly basis. This process, supplemented by the plant health risk register, helps to identify priorities for action, including new regulation, simplified regulation or deregulation. It was through this mechanism that we identified the need for additional action to protect our sweet chestnut, plane and pine trees, which resulted in the new regulations introduced in November. In addition, as part of the Red Tape Challenge, we have reviewed all plant health legislation. An outcome from this review is a proposal to consolidate certain important regulations and to consult on revoking those where the powers are no longer required.

We are also fully engaged in the EU regulatory process for responding to threats. The ideal is to keep pests out of Europe altogether, which is the most effective means of preventing them reaching the UK. For pests which are already present in the EU, but not the UK, we need to assess the case for protected zone status. A package of draft legislation progressing through the EU Standing Committee on Plant Health at present includes a number of changes which result from UK initiatives, including regulating the Bronze Birch Borer and Pepper Weevil for the first time, strengthening regulation against the Emerald Ash Borer and deregulating Camellia Flower Blight. We are also looking to introduce or update protected zone requirements on Oak Processionary Moth and the Oriental Chestnut Gall Wasp, as well as establishing in EU law the new UK requirements on Sweet Chestnut Blight and Plane Wilt.

The EU regime is currently being reviewed to respond to defects identified in a 2010 evaluation. This provides an opportunity to secure significant changes to plant health controls, and to introduce a new regime more consistent with the UK Government’s aims. We will be negotiating for a new regime which achieves: faster decision making as plant health risks change and new pests arrive; better risk targeting, including regionalisation where appropriate, and a shift of inspection effort from plant produce to higher risk plants and propagating material; and more co-operation between plant health inspectorates across the EU and between plant health and customs services.

5. We are aware that tightened controls for imports of plane, sweet chestnut and pine have recently been introduced through the Plant Health (England) (Amendment) (No. 3) Order 2013. Are there any plans to introduce tighter controls on imports into the UK to address the risk areas such as soil, wood-based packaging and other plant products?

The next stage of the development of the plant health risk register will include an analysis of the risks posed by various pathways, and the ways in which they are currently mitigated. The risk register work will also include identification of further mitigating actions which should be undertaken to tackle threats from pests or pathways.

Such pathways can most effectively be controlled through a harmonised EU, or sometimes a global, response and we will continue to engage in the processes to address such threats. For instance, the introduction of ISPM 15 (International Standard for Phytosanitary Measures), under the auspices of the International Plant Protection Convention, on the treatment of wood packaging has helped to reduce the risks associated with this pathway. Some risks remain about the level of implementation of this ISPM and we have worked with the European Commission and other Member States on new requirements for wood packaging from China, which remains a concern. The information gathered during surveillance is being shared with other Member States and we would expect to take concerted action in order to respond to any new threats detected.

We have been playing a lead role in initiating a review of soil and growing media requirements in EU legislation and this issue is now being assessed by the European Food Safety Authority. In addition our horizon scanning has identified a potential risk emerging from the trade in firewood and certain types of wood chip for biomass. We will work with industry to determine how to monitor these trades effectively and if new threats are detected we will seek to introduce new regulation to address these.

6. How will the department improve access to information and improve communication channels between the diffuse organisations involved?

We have set up a plant health policy team in Defra to lead the delivery of plant heath activities across England, coordinating input on policy, operational delivery and communications from Fera and the Forestry Commission and providing a closer link to Ministers. At UK level we now have a co-ordinated approach, involving all relevant departments, to assessing and responding to plant health threats, through the UK Plant Health Risk Group which reports to an overhauled UK Plant Health Strategy Board. The Strategy Board is chaired by Defra at director level.

In addition in order to improve the accessibility and ease of use of the vast amount of data available on tree and plant health, a web-based information system is to be developed and launched. This system will be aimed at meeting the needs of the diverse range of users, including government officials, stakeholders, academics and members of the public. It will bring the vast range of data together in one accessible location, providing tools to aid searching and processing. The prioritised plant health risk register will form a key component of this information system.

7. In relation to overall resources for research, please provide any update to the forecast Defra budgets for 2013–14 onwards as stated in the department’s last written evidence submitted to the Committee (in January 2013)?

	08/09	09/10	10/11	11/12	12/13	13/14	14/15**
Core Defra Tree Health and Plant Biosecurity Action Plan*	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	2	4.4	4.4
Core Defra Plant Health Research (managed by Fera)	1.3	1.4	0.7	2	1.6
Forestry Commission Plant Health Research	1.5	1.4	1.4	1.7	2	2.3	2.3
Total Defra Research spend (£m)	2.8	2.8	2.1	3.7	5.6	6.7	6.7

*published October 2011

**Please note: Defra budgets for 14/15 and beyond are indicative and may increase or decrease to ensure evidence resources remain aligned and responsive to policy needs.

8. How does the department intend to address the key skills shortages that have been identified in the UK? Particularly with regard to securing future teaching and training and increasing expertise in this area?

A range of immediate initiatives are being taken forward to address skills shortages. We have undertaken an initial review of our capability and capacity in plant health which will inform our future research priorities and will be published in January 2014. We have invested in the European EUPHRESCO (EU Plant Health Research Co-ordination) plant health fellowship scheme and the £9.6 million Tree Health and Plant Biosecurity research initiative co-funded with Research Councils under the Living With Environmental Change framework to build up research capacity and increase plant health skills in the UK and wider.

At a strategic level, the Government Chief Scientific Adviser, Sir Mark Walport, in association with the Defra Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor Ian Boyd, is undertaking a study to determine the UK’s long term needs for capability in the provision of research to underpin the assurance of best practice management of animal and plant health. For this project, research will include all forms of knowledge management from, for example, national and international data flows based upon operational surveillance to experimental laboratory-based science. The project will deliver its recommendations in summer 2014.

Citizen Science is an important means of building capacity, by utilising skills across a wide network of volunteers. We are conducting a review of our strategic use of Citizen Science, to ensure its potential is realised, and are actively supporting initiatives such as OPAL and ObservaTree, which is developing a tree health early warning system through the involvement of volunteers, citizens and civil society organisations.

In addition, further work is underway to review those in the wider educational landscape who have an interest in biosecurity. Fera and the FC are working with LANTRA, the sector skills council for the environmental and land-based sector to explore e-learning opportunities for the different sectors.

9. What action is the department taking to ensure that the wider biodiversity and social costs and impacts of the ongoing loss of trees and plants to disease and pests are being considered?

A significant programme of work is underway to build our understanding of the impacts of pests and disease. We are developing a robust framework for assessing the impacts of the loss of trees and plants to woodlands and other habitats and taking an ecosystems services approach to identify and value the benefits lost. This valuation framework was developed for Chalara and ash trees but a modular approach was specifically adopted so as to be able to extend it to cover any pest or disease and any species of tree or plant.

The plant health research programme also has a number of projects in progress, some of which specifically aim to improve our understanding on the wider impacts on society of the spread of specific pest and diseases and how best to manage those. Most notable of these was a study carried out by JNCC to assess the ecological impacts of the loss of ash trees as a result of Chalara. Work is also underway to assess the social impacts of plant diseases, including those that cannot be monetised.

Finally, impact assessments are required for any significant changes in policy, and so we routinely consider these overall impacts on society when developing and implementing policies.

All of this work feeds into the risk register since environmental and social impacts, as well as economic impacts, are considered when pests are assessed through the new risk register methodology. Further developing these aspects will be an important element of a project to refine and enhance the risk register methodology in 2014.

10. The remit for the Expert Taskforce is expressly directed at trees and related woody species and the department’s focus has been mainly on Chalara fraxinea. Does the department intend to (i) widen the scope to encompass the wider issues that the UK is facing regarding pests and diseases of other plants, such as food crops and indigenous vegetation; and (ii) reassess its own focus to take into account the growing issues of other diseases such as Phytophthora ramorum, Acute Oak Decline, Dothistroma Needle Blight and Oak Processionary Moth?

Plant health is now one of the four priorities for the department. The enhanced plant health programme which we are developing with stakeholders will cover all plants including trees. The enhanced capacity this will provide will enable us to deal with existing threats whilst retaining the flexibility to meet new challenges if and when they arise.

The department is committed to taking a wide and balanced view by developing a prioritised risk register for plant health. This involves identifying risks from all significant plant pest and disease threats. The magnitude of each risk will be quantified on the basis of both likelihood and impact. This will inform decisions on identifying and responding to the top threats whether they are to trees, cultivated crops or indigenous vegetation. The process is already helping to identify priorities for action, which includes government action, but also where stakeholders may have a role to play.

Work is underway to reassess our approach to current tree health threats in England through a newly established Tree Health Policy Group which brings together officials and stakeholders. The remit of this stakeholder group is to provide advice to the Government on policy options on, and help develop strategic responses to, outbreaks of tree pests and pathogens that are established or at (imminent) risk of establishing in England. The group is currently considering a number of pests and diseases present in the UK, including Phytophthora Ramorum and Oak Processionary Moth. The Forestry Commission is also engaged in similar stakeholder groups for Scotland and Wales and there is regular exchange of information between the four administrations.