Opposition Day — Ash Dieback Disease — 12 Nov 2012 at 18:49

The majority of MPs voted against the Government issuing clear advice on preventing the spread of Ash Dieback Disease and against ensuring the Forestry Commission has adequate resources to deal with the disease.

The motion rejected in this vote was:

  • That this House
  • notes that ash dieback, which could affect 80 million native ash trees, has been identified in 115 sites;
  • further notes that Government ministers were informed of the disease on 3 April 2012;
  • regrets that the public were not informed about the disease this spring and that a thorough survey of woodland was not carried out this summer;
  • further regrets that the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has circulated a briefing to hon. Members from the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties, but not the Opposition;
  • recognises that 530 staff posts have already been cut from the Forestry Commission, including 38 posts in Forest Research which investigates tree diseases, and that the Forestry Commission budget will be cut from £47.5 million in 2010-11 to £36.2 million in 2014-15;
  • calls on the Government to issue clear advice to tree growers and the public as to the best way to prevent disease spread and to work with all hon. Members, including the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, as well as councils and other affected stakeholders to fight this disease and ensure that lessons are learned; and
  • further calls on the Government urgently to assess whether the Forestry Commission has adequate resources to guarantee that there are enough Forestry Commission staff and scientists to carry out further tree health surveys and to commit to work with all stakeholders to overcome the environmental, economic and ecological impact of this terrible disease.

Debate in Parliament | Source |

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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
Con226 (+1 tell) 0074.4%
DUP0 3037.5%
Green0 10100.0%
Independent0 10100.0%
Lab0 191 (+2 tell)076.6%
LDem44 (+1 tell) 0078.9%
SDLP0 2066.7%
SNP0 60100.0%
Total:270 204075.5%

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
no rebellions

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