Tree work words: law and permits
Tree protection, felling licence and workplace-law words as GOV.UK, Natural Resources Wales, the City of Austin, SafeWork NSW and WorkSafe New Zealand define them.
Checked against the sources at the bottom of this page on October 8, 2026. Rules, fees and pay change: the source has the last word.
This page reports what the official source says. It is not legal advice: ask the office named here. Tree law has its own vocabulary, and the same word can carry a different legal meaning in each country. This page lists the words as the named government pages use them, with the place shown, and does not say how any rule applies to a given tree or job.
Every meaning is written in our own words from the page named in its row. A word that none of those pages defines is not listed. The wider A to Z list is the tree work glossary.
Words and meanings
| Term | Meaning | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Tree Preservation Order (England) | An order made by a local planning authority in England to protect specific trees, groups of trees or woodlands in the interests of amenity. The guidance says it bars cutting down, topping, lopping, uprooting, and wilful damage or destruction without the authority's written consent. | GOV.UK planning guidance on tree preservation orders |
| Amenity | The interest in which an authority may make a Tree Preservation Order. The guidance says authorities are advised to consider what amenity means in practice, including how far the public can see the trees. | GOV.UK planning guidance on tree preservation orders |
| Individual, group, area, woodland | The four categories the guidance says a Tree Preservation Order must use, in any combination. Individual covers trees that merit protection in their own right. Group covers trees whose overall impact merits protection. Woodland protects a woodland as a whole. Area is aimed at short-term emergency protection of trees dotted over a mapped area. | GOV.UK planning guidance on tree preservation orders |
| Provisional effect | The guidance says an Order takes effect the day the authority makes it and lasts 6 months, unless the authority confirms it or decides not to confirm it first. | GOV.UK planning guidance on tree preservation orders |
| Regulation 5 notice | The notice an authority serves on people with an interest in the land after making an Order. The guidance says it names a date at least 28 days later for objections or comments. | GOV.UK planning guidance on tree preservation orders |
| Conservation area notice (section 211) | For trees in a conservation area that are not under an Order, the guidance says section 211 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 requires notice to the authority 6 weeks before certain work, unless an exception applies. The authority may agree to an earlier start. | GOV.UK planning guidance on tree preservation orders |
| Dead tree exception | The guidance says that for work on a dead tree under an Order, 5 working days of written notice go to the authority, which does not need to give consent. Dead branches on a living tree fall under a separate exception with no prior notice. | GOV.UK planning guidance on tree preservation orders |
| Immediate risk of serious harm | The guidance gives this as a case where work on a protected tree is urgently necessary. It says there must be a present serious safety risk, and that written notice goes to the authority afterwards. | GOV.UK planning guidance on tree preservation orders |
| Felling licence (England) | Permission from the Forestry Commission to fell growing trees in England. The page says it is needed unless an exemption applies, that felling without one where it was required is an offence, that licences are free, and that they usually require restocking. | GOV.UK guidance on felling licences |
| Restocking | In the England felling licence guidance, replanting the felled area or allowing natural regeneration after felling. The page says it is typically required, though a thinning-only licence usually does not need it. | GOV.UK guidance on felling licences |
| Felling licence (Wales) | Natural Resources Wales says the owner, an agent, a timber merchant or a contractor must make sure the right licence has been issued before felling work. Its page lists cases where none is needed, including lopping and topping, and felling a dangerous tree where the danger is real and immediate. | Natural Resources Wales page on felling licences |
| Statutory Plant Health Notice (SPHN) | A notice that plant health authorities such as the Forestry Commission can issue in Great Britain about a notifiable tree pest or disease. The pages say it sets out steps to eradicate or contain the problem, that receiving one does not mean an offence has been committed, and that ignoring one can lead to enforcement action. | Forest Research page on biosecurity; GOV.UK guidance on tree pest biosecurity |
| Regulated tree (Austin, Texas) | The City of Austin says it regulates removal of certain-sized trees even when they are dead, diseased or an imminent danger. The size depends on the property. A tree of 19 inches diameter or more on one- and two-unit residential property is regulated, and on commercial and multifamily property it is 8 inches or more. | City of Austin page on regulated trees |
| Person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) | The umbrella term in the Australian and New Zealand health and safety acts. SafeWork NSW lists a company, an association, and a sole trader or self-employed person as examples. WorkSafe New Zealand says it does not include workers, officers or most home occupiers who hire a tradesperson. | SafeWork NSW tree work code, glossary; WorkSafe NZ forestry glossary, appendix 1 |
| Duty holder | Anyone who owes a work health and safety duty under the act. SafeWork NSW lists PCBUs, upstream designers and suppliers, officers and workers. WorkSafe New Zealand names four types: PCBUs, officers, workers and other persons at workplaces. | SafeWork NSW tree work code, glossary; WorkSafe NZ forestry glossary, appendix 1 |
| Officer | In New Zealand, a person who can significantly influence the management of a PCBU, such as a company director, who must exercise due diligence. SafeWork NSW notes that a partner in a partnership is not an officer, because each partner is a PCBU. | WorkSafe NZ forestry glossary, appendix 1; SafeWork NSW tree work code, glossary |
| Worker | SafeWork NSW defines it as anyone doing work for a PCBU, including employees, contractors, sub-contractors and their employees, apprentices, work experience students and volunteers. WorkSafe New Zealand's list is similar and says contractors and their staff count as workers of the contracting PCBU. | SafeWork NSW tree work code, glossary; WorkSafe NZ forestry glossary, appendix 1 |
| Overlapping duties | WorkSafe New Zealand says PCBUs share duties on the same matter, and that PCBUs with overlapping duties must consult, co-operate and co-ordinate with each other. | WorkSafe NZ forestry glossary, appendix 1 |
| Approved code of practice (ACOP) | In New Zealand, a document setting out WorkSafe's expectations on how to meet legal duties. The glossary says other practices can also achieve compliance if they give an equal or higher level of safety. | WorkSafe NZ forestry glossary, appendix 1 |
| Must and may (NSW code) | SafeWork NSW's code says must marks a legal duty and may marks an optional course. It gives a separate word to recommended courses. | SafeWork NSW tree work code, glossary |
| Dangerous incident | In the NSW code, an incident that exposes a person to serious risk from immediate or imminent exposure to events on a list. Examples include uncontrolled fire, electric shock, the fall of a thing from a height and the collapse of a structure. | SafeWork NSW tree work code, glossary |
| Cessation of work | WorkSafe New Zealand says a worker can stop or refuse work they believe is unsafe or exposes them to serious risk, and must tell the PCBU promptly and remain available for suitable alternative work. A trained HSR (a health and safety rep) can direct a worker to cease work. | WorkSafe NZ page on cessation of work |
Reading these sources
The tree protection entries describe England, Wales and one US city. Their rules differ from each other, and other places have their own. The country-by-country picture is on tree protection laws by country, and rules that touch nesting birds and bats are on wildlife and the law.
The workplace-law entries come from the New South Wales tree work code of practice and the New Zealand forestry glossary. Both countries use the term person conducting a business or undertaking, written PCBU, in their health and safety acts. Other countries use other terms for the same ideas, and safety rules by country shows where. What a worker may do about unsafe work is on the right to refuse unsafe work.
Pesticide licensing words are not defined here. See pesticide licences by country.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains material from the SafeWork NSW Tree work code of practice, which SafeWork NSW publishes under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Contains material from WorkSafe New Zealand publications. The wording above is ours.
Sources
- GOV.UK, Tree Preservation Orders and trees in conservation areas, read October 8, 2026
- Forestry Commission via GOV.UK, When a felling licence is needed, read October 8, 2026
- Natural Resources Wales, Check if you need a felling licence, read October 8, 2026
- Forest Research, Biosecurity, read October 8, 2026
- Forestry Commission and APHA via GOV.UK, How biosecurity can prevent the introduction and spread of tree pests and diseases, read October 8, 2026
- City of Austin Development Services, Dead, Diseased and Imminent Hazard Trees, read October 8, 2026
- SafeWork NSW, Tree work code of practice, appendix A glossary, read October 8, 2026
- WorkSafe New Zealand, Safe practice for forestry and harvesting operations, appendix 1 glossary, read October 8, 2026
- WorkSafe New Zealand, Cessation of work, read October 8, 2026