Department details

Introduction

The Forestry Commission is the government department responsible for forestry policy in England, Wales and Scotland (forestry in Northern Ireland is the responsibility of the Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture for Northern Ireland). The Forestry Commission's functions are defined in the Forestry Act 1967 as "promoting the interests of forestry, the development of afforestation and the production and supply of timber and other forest products in Great Britain" and "the establishment and maintenance in Great Britain of adequate reserves of growing trees".1 Under the 1967 Act and subsequent legislation, the Commission is empowered to:

• Manage, plant and use land placed at its disposal
• Manage and supervise woods and forests and give assistance and advice in regard to forest planting and management
• Purchase and dispose of standing timber and promote the supply, use and conversion of timber
• Establish, carry on and promote woodland industries
• Regulate private felling and planting
• Make orders for the control of timber pests and diseases
• Collect, prepare and publish forestry statistics, promote training in forestry and conduct forestry research
• Provide tourist, recreational and sporting facilities

In discharging these duties the Commission is required, under the Wildlife and Countryside (Amendment) Act 1985, to endeavour to strike a balance between the development of afforestation, the management of forests and the production and supply of timber, on the one hand; and the conservation and enhancement of natural beauty and the conservation of sites of special interest, on the other hand.2

This administrative history traces the history of the predecessors of the Commission, and of the Commission itself since its establishment in 1919.

State forestry before 1919

Royal forests such as the New Forest and the Forest of Dean, where certain rights (e.g. hunting) were reserved to the Crown, came into being in the Middle Ages and developed their own officers, courts and systems of law. However, there was no central administration of these forests until 1829, when certain powers of the forestal offices (including forest courts) were vested in the First Commissioner of His Majesty's Woods, Forests and Land Revenues. The Crown Lands Act 1832 passed these powers to Commissioners of Woods, Forests, Land Revenues, Works and Buildings. Further legislation in 1851 transferred most of the control of royal forests to Commissioners of Woods, Forests and Land Revenues, who later became the Commissioners of Crown Lands (and thereafter the Crown Estate Commissioners).3 During the first half of the 19th century these Commissioners pursued a policy of afforestation in the royal forests, to ensure an adequate supply of timber for the Royal Navy. The development of iron hulled ships in the 1860s, coupled with the removal of duties on timber imports in 1867, contributed to a decline in timber prices and in domestic timber production in the second half of the century.4 By 1909 all but 8% of Britain's timber needs were being met by imports.5

In 1889 the newly created Board of Agriculture was given responsibility for compiling forestry statistics and promoting instruction in forestry (for further information on the Board of Agriculture, see the Administrative History of the Agricultural Departments).6 During the early years of the 20th century there were a number of proposals to develop a national forestry service and an afforestation programme. In 1902 the Board of Agriculture appointed a Departmental Committee to examine the state of forestry, which reported in favour of a programme of education to encourage better forest management and fresh planting.7 An Afforestation Conference was held under Board of Trade auspices in 1907 to consider forestry as a means of reducing unemployment; while in 1909 the Royal Commission on Coast Erosion, Reclamation of Tidal Lands and Afforestation in the United Kingdom proposed two large scale forest planting schemes, and recommended that Commissioners be appointed to implement them. A further step towards state sponsored forestry was taken in 1909 with the creation of the Development Commission, appointed under the Development and Road Improvement Fund Act 1909. The Commission was empowered to make grants for afforestation, agriculture and other purposes, and had allocated £270,000 to forestry by 1915, mostly for education, administration and advisory services.8

The immediate impetus towards the creation of a national Forestry Commission came from the timber shortage which resulted from the disruption of overseas supplies during the First World War. Imports of timber fell from 6 1/2 million tons in 1916 to 2 1/2 million tons in 1918.9 A Home-Grown Timber Committee was appointed by the Board of Agriculture in 1915, with authority to organise timber supplies and establish its own sawmills. This body proved ineffective and was replaced in 1917 by a Directorate of Timber Supplies, which was quickly reconstituted as the Timber Supply Department of the Board of Trade. This operated until the end of the war and had control over timber stocks, production and importation, and instituted a system of rationing and maximum prices.10 Meanwhile the state of UK forestry was examined by the Forestry Sub-Committee (the Acland Committee) of the Reconstruction Committee of the Cabinet. The Committee reported in 1917 in favour of the creation of a national forestry commission independent of the agriculture departments in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, and with the authority to pursue a programme of afforestation on strategic grounds. These findings were generally accepted and formed the basis of the Forestry Act 1919, which established the Forestry Commission in September of that year. The Commission replaced an Interim Forest Authority set up in 1918 in the wake of the Acland Committee's report.11

Forestry Commission, 1919-1951

The 1919 Act established a Forestry Commission headed by a Chairman and seven other Commissioners, with the general duty of promoting the interests of forestry, the development of afforestation and the production of timber in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland (the Commission's authority in respect of Ireland ceased in 1922).12 The Commissioners received the forestry powers of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries and the Scottish Board of Agriculture (for further information on the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, see the Administrative History of the Agriculture Departments). No Minister was made responsible for the Commission but Members of Parliament could be Commissioners, and in practice one of the Commissioners who was an MP would speak for the Commission in the House of Commons.13 The Commissioners were empowered to delegate their authority to three Assistant Commissioners, one for England and Wales and one each for Scotland and Ireland, who became heads of the Commission's administration. A regional organisation was established of Divisions headed by Divisional Officers, with District Officers being responsible for specific groups of forests. Consultative Committees for England, Wales and Scotland were established to advise the Commission, including representatives of forestry interests and of the agricultural departments.14 Under the Transfer of Woods Act 1923 most of the important Crown forests were transferred to the Forestry Commission, which was also allowed to lease land from the Commissioners for Crown Lands. By 1939 the Commission had purchased 655,000 acres of plantable land, had planted 370,000 acres, and had opened three national forest parks.15

The Second World War saw shortages of imported timber and a massive expansion in domestic forestry. From 1941 until 1946 the control of the prices, sales and felling of timber rested with the Timber Department of the Ministry of Supply, which limited the Forestry Commission's wartime role.16 Wartime felling licences were retained after 1945 under the control of the Board of Trade, until this responsibility was passed to the Forestry Commission in 1950.17 In 1943 the Forestry Commissioners submitted a report recommending an expanded peacetime role for the Commission on strategic grounds, and on the grounds of a projected post-war shortage of timber. A White Paper in the following year recommended the establishment of a "dedication scheme" of afforestation grants to landowners who adopted Forestry Commission plans for afforestation and management. Dedication schemes were eventually introduced in 1947.18

The Forestry Act 1945 changed the constitution of the postwar Commission by placing it under the direction of the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries (in respect of England and Wales), and the Secretary of State concerned with Agriculture in Scotland (in respect of Scotland). The Forestry Commission's land was vested in the Minister and Secretary of State respectively, rather than in the Commission, which now comprised a Chairman and not more than nine other Commissioners.19 The administrative structure of the Forestry Commission was also reorganised, with the two Assistant Commissioners being replaced by three Directors of Forestry responsible for England, Scotland and Wales. The pre-war regional organisation of Divisions was replaced by eleven Conservancies, each under a Conservator assisted by District Officers in charge of groups of forests.20 The three Consultative Committees were similarly replaced by three National Committees for England, Scotland and Wales to which the Commission could delegate any of its functions. Regional Advisory Committees (one for each Conservancy) were established in 1946 to provide channels of communication from those involved in forestry to the local Conservator. Two Private Forestry Committees to represent private forestry interests were created in 1946 under the Forestry Commission's auspices; they merged in 1948 to become the UK Forestry Committee, which developed into a powerful lobbying force for forestry interests. In 1951 a new Forestry Act made permanent the wartime powers to licence and control fellings inherited by the Forestry Commission, and affirmed the Commission's duty of "promoting the establishment and maintenance in Great Britain of adequate reserves of growing trees".21

Forestry Commission, 1952-

The 1950s saw a rapid expansion of the Forestry Commission's activities: by the end of the decade the Commission had planted over 1 million acres and over 1/2 million acres were covered by the dedication scheme.22 The Commission's work was reaffirmed in 1957 by an independent report commissioned by the government (the Zuckerman Report), which stressed the economic importance of state sponsored forestry on import saving grounds, rather than its strategic role.23 In 1965 a report of the Parliamentary Estimates Committee led to a reorganisation of the Commission, with the three Directors of Forestry being abolished, and control of the Conservancies passing to Forestry Commission headquarters.24 The same year saw the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food's responsibility for the Commission transferred to the Minister of Land and Natural Resources (in respect of England) and the Secretary of State for Wales (in respect of Wales); oversight of the Commission's activities in England passed back to the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in 1967 when the Ministry of Land and Natural Resources was abolished.25 The Forestry Act 1967 repealed and updated the Acts of 1919, 1945 and 1951, and placed a new emphasis on the Commission's recreation and conservation roles; while the Countryside Act 1968 allowed it to plant and manage for amenity purposes and to provide recreational facilities. The recreational benefits of afforestation were also stressed in a White Paper on forestry in 1972, which was otherwise critical of the import saving justification for state forestry.26

The 1970s, 1980s and 1990s saw a continued emphasis on the environmental role of the Forestry Commission, together with a switch to tax inducements as a way of encouraging afforestation, rather than grant aid or direct planting by the Commission, which was required to dispose of some of its land by the Forestry Act 1981.27 In 1991 the Commission issued a policy statement which stressed the principle of the Commission's multiple objectives and the importance of environmentally sustainable forestry (including its role in combating global warming).28 Further reorganisation of the Commission's regional structures occurred in 1974, when its headquarters was transferred from London to Edinburgh and its Scottish national office was abolished; and in 1982, when the district and forest levels of management were amalgamated to create 70 Forest Districts directly under the Conservancies.29 In 1992 the Commission's central administration was restructured into two main arms reflecting its major areas of work: Forest Enterprise, which was tasked with managing the Commission's forest estate and commercial activities; and a Department of Forestry comprising the rest of the Commission. The Department of Forestry was in turn divided into a Forestry Authority (responsible for the Commission's regulatory and grant aiding functions), and a Policy and Resources Group which provided common services to the Forestry Authority and Forest Enterprise. The creation of Forest Enterprise and the Forestry Authority formalised a distinction between the Commission's regulatory and commercial aspects, which had been made in its accounting procedures and annual reports since 1966. In 1995 this structure was further adjusted when the common service elements of Policy and Resources Group became an Administration and Finance Group, while a Forestry Policy Directorate was created to provide policy advice to Ministers and the Commissioners.30 Forest Enterprise became an Executive Agency of the Forestry Commission in 1996. It was joined in 1997 by Forest Research, an Executive Agency formed out of the Commission's research related branches (see Subdivisions).

Since 1 July 1999 the Forestry Commission has been answerable to the Scottish Executive for most of its activities in Scotland. The Commission's national office in Scotland has become the Forestry Department of the Scottish Executive, and provides policy advice to Scottish Ministers and the Scottish Parliament. The Secretary of State for Wales's responsibility for supervising the Forestry Commission's activities in Wales was similarly transferred to the National Assembly for Wales in July 1999; the Commission provides the Assembly with advice and support on forestry matters. In preparation for devolution, the Forestry Commission established a Policy and Practice Division in 1999 to carry out those functions of the Commission which apply to the whole of Great Britain. Its responsibilities include policy co-ordination, international relations and representation, the commissioning and purchase of research, publications, forestry training services, support for the Forestry and Arboriculture Safety Training Council and the UK Woodland Assurance Scheme, economic and statistical services, and monitoring of the UK Forestry Standard.31

Field Surveys Branch and successors

Following the creation of the Forestry Commission a small research branch was established in London under the control of a chief research officer, dealing with research into tree growth, silviculture, timber production, entomology and mycology. To assist this branch an Advisory Committee on Forest Research, composed of leading authorities on forestry and allied subjects, was established in 1929. In 1946 a central research station was set up at Alice Holt Lodge in Surrey, with sections dealing with silviculture, forest preservation, ecology, entomology and pathology under the direction of a chief research officer within the Office of Director of Research. By the mid-1970s this had evolved into a Research and Development Division based at Alice Holt Lodge and Roslin, Midlothian.32

The Research and Development Division included a Field Surveys Branch which was divided into the following sections: a Field Survey Section dealing with subjects like aerial surveys, censuses and production forecasting; a Site Survey Section dealing with topics such as surveys of plantable reserves and surveys for windthrow hazards; a Mensuration Section dealing with topics such as sample plot measurement and yield models; and a Central Drawing Office responsible for mapping.33 In 1979 the Field Survey and Site Surveys Sections were amalgamated to become Field and Site Surveys Section, and a Census Section was created to carry out the 1979-1982 Census of Woodlands and Trees in Great Britain.34 In 1985, as part of a general reorganisation of Research and Development Division, Field Surveys Branch was transferred to the Forestry Commission's Planning and Surveys Division where it became Forest Surveys Branch. The Branch's Mensuration Section remained within Research and Development Division where it became Mensuration Branch.35 Research and Development Division itself was later renamed Research Division.36

The history of Forest Surveys Branch after its move to Planning and Surveys Division is unclear. By 1988 Planning and Surveys Division had been renamed Development Division, and was located within the Forestry Commission's Private Forestry and Development Department. The Division had responsibility for "policy and corporate planning, land use planning, economic planning, appraisal of forest investment [and] forest surveys".37 Following the restructuring of the Forestry Commission in 1992, forest surveys became the responsibility of Policy Studies Division within Policy and Resources Group.38 Policy Studies Division was broken up in a further reorganisation in 1995. Its survey work appears to have been grouped with Technical Development Branch and Research Division, under a new Research, Development and Surveys Group reporting to the Forestry Commission's Director General.39 This later became Forest Research, an Executive Agency of the Forestry Commission from 1 April 1997. Forest Research's aim is to "provide research, development, surveys and related services to the forest industry and provide authoritative advice in support of the development and implementation of the government's forestry policies". It acts as the principal provider of research and scientific advice to the Forestry Commission, and may also carry out research for outside customers.40

The Woodland Surveys Branch of Forest Research is responsible for conducting a successor to the 1979-1982 Census of Woodlands and Trees, known as the National Inventory of Woodland and Trees. It aims to complete this survey for the whole of Great Britain by 2001. A pilot of this survey was conducted in the former Grampian Region of Scotland in 1993-1994 (see Records in NDAD).

A Data Processing Division with responsibility for the "planning and co-ordination of computer systems and operations" was created within the Forestry Commission's Administration and Finance Department by 1985.41 It later became known as Business Systems Division, and was assigned to Policy and Resources Group in the reorganisation of the Forestry Commission in 1992. By that stage its functions had broadened to "business analysis, information systems, design and development, computer programming and operations and telecommunications".42 The Division was renamed Business Services Division in 1995, and was assigned to Administration and Finance Group, along with the other common services of Policy and Resources Group. It appears to have acquired additional responsibilities for "document production, office services [and] building management".43

Business Services Division and its predecessor, Business Systems Division, have provided hardware and software support for the National Inventory of Woodland and Trees, on behalf of Forest Research (see Records in NDAD).

National Inventory of Woodland and Trees: reference CRDA/3

NDAD has received two datasets and related documentation for a pilot survey of the main woodland section of the National Inventory of Woodland and Trees (NIWT), which was conducted in the Grampian Region of Scotland in 1993-1994. One of the datasets contains map data which was used as a sampling frame, while the other dataset holds data on a sample of woodlands over two hectares in extent which were surveyed in the field. The pilot survey was conducted by Surveys Branch of Policy Studies Division, though responsibility for the NIWT was later inherited by the Woodland Surveys Branch of the Forestry Commission's Executive Agency, Forest Research (see Subdivisions). The datasets are closed for 30 years, with some fields being subject to longer closure periods, though some items of documentation are open: see the Series Catalogue for further details.

Records of the Forestry Commission are held at the National Archives in classes with the prefix "F". Datasets created by the Forestry Commission (including a dataset for the 1979-1982 Census of Woodlands and Trees) have been deposited in the UK Data Archive.

For further information about the work of the Forestry Commission, contact the Forestry Commission, 231 Corstorphine Road, Edinburgh, Scotland EH12 7AT (tel: 0131-334 0303, fax: 0131-334 4473, email: enquiries@forestry.gov.uk), or visit the Forestry Commission's web site.

1. Robert Miller, State Forestry for the Axe: A Study of the Forestry Commission and De-nationalisation by the Market, Hobart Paper 91 (London: Institute of Economic Affairs, 1981), p. 11.

2. Ibid.; Lord Hailsham of St Marylebone, ed, Halsbury's Laws of England: Fourth Edition Reissue (London: Butterworths, 1995), vol. 19(1), pp. 4, 10-12.

3. Ibid., p. 2.

4. Michael Winter, Rural Politics: Policies for Agriculture, Forestry and the Environment (London: Routledge, 1996), p. 279; Miller, State Forestry for the Axe, p. 14.

5. Ibid., p. 42.

6. Public Record Office, Public Record Office Current Guide (Kew: Public Record Office, 1996), part 1, section 512/1/1.

7. Winter, Rural Politics, p. 279.

8. Ibid., p. 280; Miller, State Forestry for the Axe, p. 40-41; Public Record Office, Public Record Office Current Guide, part 1, section 512/1/1.

9. Miller, State Forestry for the Axe, p. 42.

10. William Ling Laylor, Forests and Forestry in Great Britain (London: Crosby Lockwood and Son, 1945), p. 94-95; Winter, Rural Politics, p. 281.

11. Ibid., p. 282; Miller, State Forestry for the Axe, p. 43; Public Record Office, Public Record Office Current Guide, part 1, section 512/1/1.

12. Ibid., part 1, sections 512/1/2 and 512/5/1; Hailsham of St Marylebone, ed, Halsbury's Laws of England, p. 3.

13. Public Record Office, Public Record Office Current Guide, part 1, section 512/1/2; Miller, State Forestry for the Axe, p. 43.

14. Public Record Office, Public Record Office Current Guide, part 1, section 512/5/1; Winter, Rural Politics, p. 284.

15. Miller, State Forestry for the Axe, p. 44-45.

16. Winter, Rural Politics, p. 285; Public Record Office, Public Record Office Current Guide, part 1, section 512/1/2.

17. Winter, Rural Politics, p. 288.

18. Miller, State Forestry for the Axe, pp. 46-48, 64.

19. Public Record Office, Public Record Office Current Guide, part 1, section 512/1/2; Hailsham of St Marylebone, ed, Halsbury's Laws of England, p. 3.

20. Public Record Office, Public Record Office Current Guide, part 1, section 512/5/1.

21. Winter, Rural Politics, pp. 284, 287-289; Miller, State Forestry for the Axe, p. 48.

22. Winter, Rural Politics, p. 289.

23. Ibid., p. 290; Miller, State Forestry for the Axe, p. 48-49.

24. Public Record Office, Public Record Office Current Guide, part 1, section 512/5/1.

25. Hailsham of St Marylebone, ed, Halsbury's Laws of England, p. 3 n.10.

26. Winter, Rural Politics, p. 292-293.

27. Ibid., p. 292 ff.

28. Ibid., p. 297.

29. Public Record Office, Public Record Office Current Guide, part 1, section 512/5/1.

30. Ibid., part 1, sections 512/2/1, 512/2/2, 512/2/3; Cabinet Office, Civil Service Year Book 1992 (London: HMSO, 1992), col. 333.

31. Forestry Commission web site, "The Forestry Commission" page (http://www.forestry.gov.uk/fcstructure.html) consulted on 13 April 1999, "GB Policy and Practice" page (http://www.forestry.gov.uk/GBPPD/ppd.html) consulted on 23 April 1999, "Forestry Commission (Scotland)" page (http://www.forestry.gov.uk/fcscotland/fcscotland.html) consulted on 21 February 2000. On the transfer of the Secretary of State for Wales's responsibilities to the National Assembly for Wales, see the National Assembly for Wales web site, "Technical Guide to the Transfer of Functions Order" page (http://www.wales.gov.uk/rh/rh0002.html), section on Forestry Act 1967, consulted on 23 April 1999, "Secretary of State Publishes 'Historic' Order Transferring Powers to National Assembly for Wales" page [press release of 16 February 1999] (http://www.wales.gov.uk/cgi-bin/hmappserv?newwa-engpr.mv+print+84) consulted on 23 April 1999, and "Agriculture" page (http://www.wales.gov.uk/polinifo/agriculture/agric_e.htm) consulted on 22 February 2000.

32. Public Record Office, Public Record Office Current Guide, part 1, section 512/3/2; Civil Service Department, Civil Service Year Book 1975 (London: HMSO, 1975), col. 694.

33. Forestry Commission, Report on Forest Research for the Year Ended March 1976 (London: HMSO, 1976), pp. 42-43, 91; Forestry Commission, Report on Forest Research for the Year Ended March 1977 (London: HMSO, 1977), pp. 40-41, 80; Forestry Commission, Report on Forest Research for the Year Ended March 1978 (London: HMSO, 1978), pp. 41-43, 77.

34. Forestry Commission, Report on Forest Research for the Year Ended March 1979 (London: HMSO, 1979), pp. 40-41, 75; G.M.L. Locke, Census of Woodlands and Trees 1979-1982, Forestry Commission Bulletin 63 (London: HMSO, 1987), p. iv.

35. Forestry Commission, Report on Forest Research for the Year Ended March 1985 (London: HMSO, 1985), pp. 4, 87.

36. Forestry Commission, Report on Forest Research for the Year Ended March 1986 (London: HMSO, 1986), p. 89.

37. Cabinet Office, Civil Service Year Book 1989 (London: HMSO, 1989), col. 394. The Civil Service Year Book normally went to print in the year prior to its year of issue, so information in the 1989 edition should reflect changes which occurred in 1988: see "The organisation of central government departments: a history, 1964-1992: data base use and specifications", downloadable paper relating to the database created for The Organisation of Central Government Departments: A History 1964-1992 (see http://www.nuff.ox.ac.uk/Politics/Whitehall/) consulted on 6 May 1999.

38. Cabinet Office, Civil Service Year Book 1992 (London: HMSO, 1992), col. 334.

39. Public Record Office, Public Record Office Current Guide, part 1, sections 512/2/1-512/2/2.

40. Forestry Commission web site, "The Forestry Commission" page (http://www.forestry.gov.uk/fcstructure.html) and page on "Forest Research" (http://www.forestry.gov.uk/research/fcrahome.html) consulted on 13 April 1999; Forestry Commission web site, "Forestry Commission Research and Development Strategy: Section I- General Strategy and Organisation" page (http://www.forestry.gov.uk/GBPPD/RESEARCH%20CATALOGUE/section1.html), paragraph 14, consulted on 23 April 1999.

41. Cabinet Office, Civil Service Year Book 1986 (London: HMSO, 1986), col. 349.

42. Cabinet Office, Civil Service Year Book 1991 (London: HMSO, 1991), col. 397; Cabinet Office, Civil Service Year Book 1992: August Edition (London: HMSO, 1992), col. 334.

43. Cabinet Office, Civil Service Year Book 1996 (London: HMSO, 1996), col. 317.