Madam, I write in reply to Mr Herriott's letter regarding forests.

Unfortunately, there has been a great deal of misinformation about the forests consultation. In particular, I have never 'voted to sell off forests'. The relevant vote in the House of Commons was on a Labour opposition motion, not on any legislation.

In response, the Government tabled its own motion, which I supported, as follows:

"That this House deplores the actions of the previous administration in selling off 25,000 acres of public forestry estate with wholly inadequate protections; notes that the previous administration sought to go even further in finding ways to exploit the forestry estate for commercial gain as recently as 2009; welcomes the consultation proposals to guarantee the future protection of heritage forests by offering them charitable trust status; supports the consultation proposals for robust access and public benefit conditions that will be put in place through lease conditions, including access rights for cyclists and horse-riders; believes the leasehold conditions regarding biodiversity and wildlife conservation will safeguard significant important environmental benefits; sees these proposals as important in resolving the conflict of interest whereby the Forestry Commission is the regulator of the timber sector whilst being the largest operator in the England timber market; considers that debate on the future of the forest estate ought to be conducted on the basis of the facts of the Government's proposals; and believes that under these proposals people will continue to enjoy the access and benefits they currently have from the woodlands of England."

I do not think there is much there, if anything, that most people would disagree with.

Since that time, the government has withdrawn the consultation. But in my view, it is still important for us all to look at how to open up public access to woodland, to involve local communities more, to safeguard ancient woodlands better and to improve biodiversity. The Woodland Trust offers a superb example of a national organisation which is doing excellent work in these areas in Herefordshire.

More generally, I receive some 1,500 communications a week, and my staff and I are diligent in responding to them while also dealing with local case work, parliamentary matters and national issues of importance to the county. But occasionally some e-mails slip through the net, especially with coordinated e-mail campaigns such as on forests. If this has happened here, I apologise.

Jesse Norman, MP