Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to manage the risk of wildfires on Otterburn Training Area.

Defence has a robust process of assessing the wildfire risk daily where the fire alert state reaches yellow in line with Met Office guidance. Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO)’s comprehensive wildfire policy considers the operational requirement to undertake training, the natures of ammunition to be used, the weather conditions, the flora within the range impact areas and the time of day the training needs to be conducted.

To mitigate against the potential of wildfire, whether caused by military activity or actions of the public, grasses and fine fuels are reduced using tools such as grazing, scrub clearance and mowing, and the range and training area access roads provide additional breaks. Additional fire breaks have been installed at locations where the Local Fire and Rescue Service have advised, or fire incident analysis has identified a requirement. Additionally, Industry Partners and tenant farmers undertake gorse and scrub removal to reduce fuel loading and to reduce the fire risk.