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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to support Natural England in their responsibilities in wildfire prevention, including in agreeing land management plans.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) is the lead Government department for wildfire. Defra works closely with MHCLG and supports Natural England (NE) to deliver its responsibilities.

This includes the recently published Environmental Improvement Plan commitment that by 2030 NE will conduct research on increasing the natural resilience of habitats to wildfires, such as through re-wetting or restoring hydrological function, including case studies of success. An initial scoping review will be reported on in the annual progress report in 2027. This will develop our understanding of actions we can take to naturally reduce the risk of wildfires.

Alongside this, Defra supports NE in:

• Working with partners to improve systems to alert land managers about fire risk and management techniques to improve resilience. This includes through support and membership of the UK Fire Danger Rating System Steering Group.
• Being represented on a number of local and regional wildfire groups in England which help address wildfire issues.
• Encouraging landowners/managers to maintain good relations with their local Fire and Rescue Service, including through joint visits to identify risks and familiarise all involved with sites that may be susceptible to wildfire.
• Advising that landowners complete a wildfire checklist (which can be funded through Countryside Stewardship). Where high vulnerability is identified it is the landowners’ responsibility to consider fire risk assessments and fire response plans.