diff --git a/cpp/dolfinx/geometry/BoundingBoxTree.h b/cpp/dolfinx/geometry/BoundingBoxTree.h
index 64ede45a05..01e0db723f 100644
--- a/cpp/dolfinx/geometry/BoundingBoxTree.h
+++ b/cpp/dolfinx/geometry/BoundingBoxTree.h
@@ -224,7 +224,7 @@ class BoundingBoxTree
   /// @param[in] padding Value to pad (extend) the the bounding box of
   /// each entity by.
   BoundingBoxTree(const mesh::Mesh<T>& mesh, int tdim,
-                  std::span<const std::int32_t> entities, double padding = 0)
+                  double padding, std::span<const std::int32_t> entities)
       : _tdim(tdim)
   {
     if (tdim < 0 or tdim > mesh.topology()->dim())
@@ -266,7 +266,7 @@ class BoundingBoxTree
   /// build the bounding box tree for
   /// @param[in] padding Value to pad (extend) the the bounding box of
   /// each entity by.
-  BoundingBoxTree(const mesh::Mesh<T>& mesh, int tdim, T padding = 0)
+  BoundingBoxTree(const mesh::Mesh<T>& mesh, int tdim, T padding)
       : BoundingBoxTree::BoundingBoxTree(
             mesh, tdim, range(mesh.topology_mutable(), tdim), padding)
   {
diff --git a/cpp/dolfinx/geometry/utils.h b/cpp/dolfinx/geometry/utils.h
index 0c772937f0..c629c3ba59 100644
--- a/cpp/dolfinx/geometry/utils.h
+++ b/cpp/dolfinx/geometry/utils.h
@@ -697,7 +697,7 @@ PointOwnershipData<T> determine_point_ownership(const mesh::Mesh<T>& mesh,
   }
   // Create a global bounding-box tree to find candidate processes with
   // cells that could collide with the points
-  BoundingBoxTree bb(mesh, tdim, cells, padding);
+  BoundingBoxTree bb(mesh, tdim, padding, cells);
   BoundingBoxTree global_bbtree = bb.create_global_tree(comm);
 
   // Compute collisions:
diff --git a/python/dolfinx/geometry.py b/python/dolfinx/geometry.py
index bd5282a9f3..b086dd5520 100644
--- a/python/dolfinx/geometry.py
+++ b/python/dolfinx/geometry.py
@@ -128,11 +128,11 @@ def bb_tree(
     dtype = mesh.geometry.x.dtype
     if np.issubdtype(dtype, np.float32):
         return BoundingBoxTree(
-            _cpp.geometry.BoundingBoxTree_float32(mesh._cpp_object, dim, entities, padding)
+            _cpp.geometry.BoundingBoxTree_float32(mesh._cpp_object, dim, padding, entities)
         )
     elif np.issubdtype(dtype, np.float64):
         return BoundingBoxTree(
-            _cpp.geometry.BoundingBoxTree_float64(mesh._cpp_object, dim, entities, padding)
+            _cpp.geometry.BoundingBoxTree_float64(mesh._cpp_object, dim, padding, entities)
         )
     else:
         raise NotImplementedError(f"Type {dtype} not supported.")
diff --git a/python/dolfinx/wrappers/geometry.cpp b/python/dolfinx/wrappers/geometry.cpp
index 2419e7e511..cc81cd3d20 100644
--- a/python/dolfinx/wrappers/geometry.cpp
+++ b/python/dolfinx/wrappers/geometry.cpp
@@ -33,17 +33,16 @@ void declare_bbtree(nb::module_& m, std::string type)
           "__init__",
           [](dolfinx::geometry::BoundingBoxTree<T>* bbt,
              const dolfinx::mesh::Mesh<T>& mesh, int dim,
+             double padding,
              nb::ndarray<const std::int32_t, nb::ndim<1>, nb::c_contig>
-                 entities,
-             double padding)
+                 entities)
           {
             new (bbt) dolfinx::geometry::BoundingBoxTree<T>(
                 mesh, dim,
-                std::span<const std::int32_t>(entities.data(), entities.size()),
-                padding);
+                padding,
+                std::span<const std::int32_t>(entities.data(), entities.size()));
           },
-          nb::arg("mesh"), nb::arg("dim"), nb::arg("entities"),
-          nb::arg("padding") = 0.0)
+          nb::arg("mesh"), nb::arg("dim"), nb::arg("padding"), nb::arg("entities"))
       .def_prop_ro("num_bboxes",
                    &dolfinx::geometry::BoundingBoxTree<T>::num_bboxes)
       .def(