The petition of residents of the constituency of Mid Dorset and North Poole
Declares that there is a growing threat of wildfires across Dorset and the UK; further declares that disposable barbecues have been the initial cause of multiple wildfires in the UK; and further that the sale of disposable barbecues should be banned to reduce the number of wildfires that will occur in the UK in the future.
The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urge the Government to introduce legislation to ban the sale of disposable barbecues.
And the petitioners remain, etc.—[Presented by Vikki Slade, Official Report, 24 November 2025; Vol. 776, c. 180.]
[P003134]
Observations from the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Mary Creagh):
The Government would like to thank the petitioners for raising the issue of disposable barbecues.
The Government take public safety very seriously. While there are no plans to introduce a blanket ban on disposable barbecues, the Government are taking action in a number of areas to help keep people safe.
Officials continue to work alongside partners including the National Fire Chiefs Council to issue proactive communications through the “Fire Kills” campaign including, for example, advice around the safe use of barbecues, cigarettes and open fires. Information about outdoor fire safety is also available on the Fire England website at https://fireengland.uk/fire-safety/fire-safety-outdoors The campaign is supported and promoted by local fire and rescue services to improve fire safety within their communities.
Fire and rescue services also actively prepare for wildfires and reflect risks in their area through a community risk management plan. The NFCC has applied lessons learnt and examples of good practice to make improvements to training, national resilience and operational response. In 2024, the Government took an additional step by providing funding for a national resilience wildfire adviser to evaluate what further national capabilities are needed to boost resilience against wildfires and to ensure that efforts across the sector are co-ordinated effectively.
All disposable barbecues must conform with the relevant product safety legislative requirements. The General Product Safety Regulations 2005 place obligations on manufacturers or importers to ensure that products are safe for the consumer before placing them on the market. These regulations also include obligations to provide appropriate labelling, warnings and instructions on use. Retailers can also take voluntary action to halt sales of single-use barbecues as demonstrated by the British Retail Consortium guidelines https://brc.org.uk/media/682052/voluntary-guidelines-for-disposable-bbqs-dbbqs-_final.pdf
Local authorities in England also have powers to apply local bans on council or public land. National landscapes and national parks also have specific powers to regulate and prohibit fires on access land. The UK Government encourage all local authorities to use these existing powers if they feel it necessary.
Fire incident statistics, published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, indicate that the number of fires caused by barbecues are relatively low. Our latest data set https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/fires-by-barbecue-dataset-2020-to-2024 shows that out of the 45,673 accidental primary fires in 2024, only 229 were started by barbecues. However, it is important to note that we do not know how many of these were caused specifically by portable or disposable barbecue products—as opposed to static or domestic barbecues. Improvements in data collection are being driven by the upcoming fire and rescue data platform, which will include a category for disposable barbecues.