Sale of Public Forest Estate — 2 Feb 2011 at 18:50

The majority of MPs voted in favour of the sale of England's public forest estate. The text of the motion[1] rejected in this vote was:

  • This House
  • believes that the Government's intention in the Public Bodies Bill to sell off up to 100% of England's public forestry estate is fundamentally unsound;
  • notes that over 225,000 people have signed a petition against such a sell-off;
  • recognises the valuable role that the Forestry Commission and England's forests have made to increasing woodland biodiversity and public access, with 40 million visits a year;
  • further recognises that the total subsidy to the Forestry Commission has reduced from 35% of income in 2003-04 to 14% of income in 2010-11;
  • further notes that the value of the ecosystems services provided by England's public forest estate is estimated to be £680 million a year;
  • notes that the value of such services could increase substantially in the future through the transition to a low carbon economy as a carbon market emerges;
  • notes that the public forest estate has been retained in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland; and
  • calls on the Government to rethink its decision on the sale of England's public forest estate in order to protect it for future generations.

This was immediately followed another vote commending the Government for its policy.

Debate in Parliament | Source |

Public Whip is run as a free not-for-profit service. If you'd like to support us, please consider switching your (UK) electricity and/or gas to Octopus Energy or tip us via Ko-Fi.

Party Summary

Votes by party, red entries are votes against the majority for that party.

What is Tell? '+1 tell' means that in addition one member of that party was a teller for that division lobby.

What are Boths? An MP can vote both aye and no in the same division. The boths page explains this.

What is Turnout? This is measured against the total membership of the party at the time of the vote.

PartyMajority (No)Minority (Aye)BothTurnout
Con267 (+1 tell) 3088.6%
DUP0 4050.0%
Green0 10100.0%
Lab0 236 (+2 tell)092.2%
LDem39 (+1 tell) 3482.5%
PC0 30100.0%
SDLP0 1033.3%
SNP0 4066.7%
Total:306 255488.6%

Rebel Voters - sorted by party

MPs for which their vote in this division differed from the majority vote of their party. You can see all votes in this division, or every eligible MP who could have voted in this division

Sort by: Name | Constituency | Party | Vote

NameConstituencyPartyVote
Zac GoldsmithRichmond ParkCon (front bench)aye
Julian LewisNew Forest EastCon (front bench)aye
Caroline NokesRomsey and Southampton NorthCon (front bench)aye
Tim FarronWestmorland and LonsdaleLDem (front bench)aye
Mike HancockPortsmouth Southwhilst LDem (front bench)aye
Adrian SandersTorbayLDemaye
Annette BrookeMid Dorset and North PooleLDem (front bench)both
Stephen GilbertSt Austell and NewquayLDem (front bench)both
Alan ReidArgyll and ButeLDem (front bench)both
Mark WilliamsCeredigionLDem (front bench)both

About the Project

The Public Whip is a not-for-profit, open source website created in 2003 by Francis Irving and Julian Todd and now run by Bairwell Ltd.

The Whip on the Web

Help keep PublicWhip alive