Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, for what reason were no minutes taken at her Department’s meeting with the National Fire Chiefs Council on 26 June 2025.

Policy officials and I met with representatives from the National Fire Chiefs Council (the NFCC) and Fire and Rescue Services (FRS) in June 2025, to discuss concerns raised in their consultation response. The officials present were those responsible for the heather and grass burning licensing scheme.

Due to an administrative error no minutes were taken of the meeting.

In developing the amendments to The Heather and Grass etc. Burning (England) Regulations 2021, the Department considered the NFCC's consultation response as well as all the other responses to the public consultation, evidence on the impacts of vegetation management on peatlands and direct engagement with NFCC and FRS.

The Department continues to work to ensure that licencing arrangements support effective wildfire mitigation and that applications where there is an evidenced need for burning can be processed as quickly as possible. FRS also remain a key consultee for licence applications to reduce the impact of wildfire.