Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Climate Change – in the Senedd at 2:04 pm on 18 May 2022.
Well, I think that's rather a daft question, if you don't mind me saying so, because there was plenty of information when we launched the scheme earlier this year. We made very clear that there would be an initial stage. We really wanted to do something in the last financial year, not wait until this financial year, so we had a soft launch where we had a final six different regional hubs open to begin the process, in partnership with the Woodland Trust. But we made clear right from the very beginning—and if the Member takes the trouble to Google this, I'm sure he'll find information—that we would have a fuller launch later this year for the October planting season. We intend to have in the order of 25 different regional hubs where people will be able to come along and collect their free tree.
It is going to be, by definition, a modest but important measure in terms of reaching our target of some 86 million trees. Giving every individual household a tree is an important symbolic gesture to raise people's awareness of the benefits of tree planting, but that's not going to meet our target. We have a comprehensive package of measures to meet that target, and I'm delighted that in the Senedd gallery today are members of the tree deep dive who worked very closely with me, and continue to work closely, on implementing a whole package of measures we identified to break down barriers to meet our target. I think the tree giveaway campaign is a really important initiative, and we'll be seeing more of it in the autumn.