Minutes of the APPG meeting 17 March 2026

Attendees

Parliamentary: Alex Mayer MP (Chair, Lab, Dunstable, Houghton Regis and Leighton Buzzard), Baroness Young of Old Scone (Vice Chair, Lab), Katie Lam MP (Vice Chair, Con, Weald of Kent), Sammy Wilson MP (DUP, East Antrim), Tessa Munt MP (Lib Dem, Wells and Mendip Hills), Liz Twist MP (Lab, Blaydon and Consett), Lord Cromwell (Crossbench), Hannah Spencer MP (Green, Gorton and Denton), Amelia Buttler Collie (Chief of Staff for Katie Lam MP), Sean Waters (Parliamentary Researcher for Chris Hinchliff MP), Theo Clark (Parliamentary Assistant for Sarah Dyke MP), Ava Duckworth (Parliamentary Assistant for Alistair Carmichael MP).

Woodland Trust: Scott Blance, Joe Humpage

External guests: Jacqueline Eggleston (Epping Forest), James Edwards (Epping Forest), Sara Lom (The Tree Council)

Minutes

Alex Mayer MP opened the session by thanking all the attendees and outlining some of the recent and forthcoming policy changes impacting woods and trees, including changes to the deer and grey squirrel policy statements, alterations to the Sustainable Farming Incentive, progress on the UK–EU sanitary and phytosanitary agreement, the imminent land-use framework, and the England Tree Action Plan. The Woodland Trust then introduced the topic of waste crime, presenting data indicating the growing scale and severity across the UK, and the specific targeting of woodlands. The impacts of waste crime on woodlands are layered: compaction and soil disturbance from vehicles and heavy machinery; direct destruction of trees through clear-felling; and hazardous pollutants, leachates, and microplastics being dispersed into the ecosystem from the unregulated waste itself. The Woodland Trust called for improved data collection on the types of habitats impacted by waste crime and fly-tipping, and for stronger prioritisation of enforcement when ecologically valuable sites are reported to the responsible authorities.

Jacqueline Eggleston, Superintendent of Epping Forest, gave a short overview of the cultural and ecological significance of Epping Forest, noting that it is a SSSI and SAC, home to one of the largest densities of ancient beech pollards in Europe, and hosts over 550 protected species. This site has been repeatedly targeted by organised criminals with serious ecological consequences. Enforcement is difficult, with the absence of Section 108 powers limiting the ability to investigate offenders. She added that because the police only run identity searches when they lead an investigation—and are not required to do so for waste crime—it becomes very difficult to pursue criminals and bring them to court. The costs of protection, prevention, and enforcement are high, and increasing surveillance is challenging on these kinds of sites. It is imperative that waste crime becomes a greater priority for the EA and the police. For Epping Forest, this means modernised powers, coordinated intelligence, and penalties that reflect the severity of the crime.

The chair then introduced Earl Russell to expand on the main agenda point and outline the recent House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee inquiry into waste crime. £15 million is the estimated sum for the clean-up of the Hoads Wood disaster, money that was taken from the Environment Agency flood defence budget.

The Committee inquiry recommended a root-and-branch review of the waste system should be commissioned by the government. Earl Russell highlighted that there are potentially many more sites of comparable size to Hoads Wood that are not in the public domain and said the UK needs to rethink its approach to this issue by treating it as serious crime, rather than leaving enforcement to fall on the shoulders of the EA. On the issue of penalties, Earl Russell noted that the judiciary should be provided with training on the ecological importance of sites so that fines and penalties are representative of the severity of the crime.

Katie Lam MP, whose constituency encompasses Hoads Wood, stressed that 30,000 tonnes of waste were dumped in just a six-month period in this particular case. She added that this is organised crime on an industrial scale, because what has been dumped is largely cut-up and semi-processed waste. In contrast to Earl Russell, she suggested that this is an issue of enforcement rather than a legislative problem.

Lord Cromwell warned of a rising tide of waste crime, stressing the key role the media has in helping raise the prominence of this issue. He said, “people are turning their land into fortresses”, adding that “who pays for the clean-up is the missing piece of the puzzle”. To ensure the polluter pays principle is upheld, fines need to be appropriate. Lord Cromwell said he had raised some of the concerns discussed with a Minister but received an unsatisfactory response that “Defra have produced guidance on fly-tipping”. Baroness Young suggested that part of the solution is to make it extremely costly for those who perpetrate these crimes but acknowledged that there is immense difficulty in tracking waste and that the forensic evidence required is difficult to obtain in some circumstances.

Sammy Wilson MP echoed concerns about the data being collected on waste crime but challenged the idea of reframing this issue from one of environmental concern to one of serious crime. Earl Russell and Lord Cromwell agreed that woodlands will continue to be used as dumping sites until many of the issues raised in the session are addressed.

The chair thanked all contributors for the lively discussion and introduced Sara Lom, CEO of The Tree Council, to speak on the government-commissioned report: Valuing and Protecting Important Trees Outside Woodlands.
 
Sara underscored the challenge at hand: defining “important” trees is difficult because of the wide range of types this can include, such as ancient trees, veteran trees, champion trees, culturally significant trees, heritage trees, and others. The Tree Council engaged with over 50 organisations and found that people value trees for many different reasons: biodiversity, age, aesthetics, community value, personal connection, or because they are under threat.
 
A year ago, 25 recommendations were submitted to Defra for the protection of important trees, but the progress has been slow to date. Earl Russell was supportive of the idea of granting protections to these kinds of trees by emulating policies from New Zealand and Italy, where such trees are designated as “green monuments”.

The chair thanked the attendees and invited them to join the Woodland Trust for the upcoming annual parliamentary reception.