Minutes: Forest Services board meeting 17 July 2024
Published 17 April 2026
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Forest Services board 27th meeting, Wednesday 17 July 2024, 09:00–11:30 in person at the Burlington Hotel, Worthing and via MS Teams.
Minutes
The Chair opened the meeting, welcoming attendees and giving updates on recent events including international forestry conferences, estate visits and meetings with new Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) ministers. The board discussed positive media coverage regarding wild areas created by Forestry England and highlighted the need to balance wilding with productive forestry. Updates were provided on pest outbreaks, especially Ips, and cross-departmental work on contingency planning.
The previous meeting’s minutes were approved. 2 additions to the Chair’s declarations of interest were noted, with no conflicts identified.
Anna Brown presented updates on key performance indicators, woodland management, spending review engagement with Defra and recent judicial review learning. The board discussed agroforestry policy, staff engagement survey timelines, ongoing fraud/bribery cases and sector relationships.
Recruitment-related risks had increased. The board discussed staff churn, safety incident reporting, England Woodland Creation Offer pipeline progress, planting targets and appeals risk related to restocking notices.
A forecast underspend was noted, driven by a newly announced recruitment freeze. The board expressed serious concern about staffing vulnerabilities and future funding uncertainty.
Sam Malpass updated the board on the business plan, and highlighted the red, amber, green ratings and delays affecting enabling activities. She discussed the spending review, and noted that recruitment freezes were a dominant challenge.
Edward Barker briefed the board on expected legislation, ministerial roles, forestry policy priorities and the 5-point environmental plan. He also discussed planting targets and the Woodland Carbon Code links with the Emissions Trading Scheme.
The board discussed the draft Forestry Charter with Ian Tubby, considering stakeholder engagement, realism of proposed actions and development of a coherent sectoral statement.
The board expressed deep concern about the recruitment freeze, fixed-term appointment liabilities, staff uncertainty and reputational risks. Comparisons were made with funding assurances given to community forests.
The board noted the Forestry Commission’s accounts timetable and discussed the Woodland Carbon Code’s administrative challenges and planned automation improvements.
The next scheduled board meeting would be on 7 November 2024 via MS Teams.