Wild Camping

Lord Harlech Excerpts

Wednesday 18th June 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

I think that that would be a matter for the police and the Home Office.

[Lord Harlech (Con)]

My Lords, I declare my farming and land management interests in Wales. Last year, mountain rescue services in England and Wales were called out to an incident every single day; in Scotland, they were called out more than 1,000 times during the year. Can we—pardon the pun—proceed with caution on any scope to widen public access in our national parks?

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

I hear what the noble Lord says. I have friends in mountain rescue. I bumped into one of them at the weekend; they had been particularly busy. The important thing is that the people who call out mountain rescue are often completely and utterly ill equipped for what they are doing. That seems the biggest problem. Mountain rescue is there to help people who get into trouble. If you have fallen and broken your ankle or there is a particular problem, that is absolutely what it is there for, in the same way as any other emergency service. To be blunt, the people who try to climb mountains in flip-flops and without proper maps—we have had this in Cumbria, believe it or not—are the ones who really need our attention, shall we say.