Minutes: Forest Services board meeting 14 November 2023
Updated 17 April 2026
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Forest Services board minutes of the 24th meeting held on Tuesday 14 November 2023, 13:30–16:00 via MS Teams.
Minutes
The Chair opened the meeting with updates on ministerial changes, recent forestry-sector events and organisational developments across Forestry England and Forest Research. Highlights included progressing financial sustainability, successful engagement events and ongoing scientific and infrastructure improvements.
The board approved the minutes of the previous meeting, noting no conflicts of interest. Directors provided updates on the England Woodland Creation Offer, grant development, payment rate discussions and early planning for the next spending review. Board members discussed messaging around productive forestry, planting trends and systemic policy challenges.
Risks, issues and opportunities were reviewed with focus on aligning strategic registers, refining risk scoring and concerns regarding customer survey data. The board also discussed health and safety, cybersecurity and the need to streamline dashboards to reduce duplication.
Finance updates highlighted overspends across capital departmental expenditure limit and resource departmental expenditure limit, with work underway to improve transparency and ensure alignment with the business plan.
A session on major landowner engagement explored barriers to woodland creation, such as policy uncertainty and land constraints. The board emphasised the importance of insight gathering and requested a further update in 2024.
Performance reporting showed broadly unchanged red, amber, green ratings. The board stressed the need to highlight business-critical red risks and avoid unnecessary data overlap. Planning for future cycles was noted as being ahead of schedule.
Plant health discussions focused on oak processionary moth and Ips typographus updates, border interceptions and resource pressures. The board examined legislative powers, contingency planning and import restrictions.
The board reviewed its effectiveness review, highlighting improvements such as financial training for non-executives, future external validation and improved scheduling. Members discussed challenge levels, customer perspectives, and blockers to tree planting. Regular updates to the effectiveness action plan were requested.
Under any other business, the Board Apprentice reflected positively on his experience and recommended improvements to support future apprentices.
The next scheduled board meeting would be 1 March, via MS Teams.