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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 24 September 2020 to Question 92945 on heather burning, how many site visits (a) his Department and (b) Natural England made to assess the environmental effect of moorland burning per year in each of the last five years.

The information requested is not held centrally.

Reports of visits are held by Natural England in Site of Special Scientific Interest files. Most visits to assess sites are to carry out routine site condition assessments and not specifically related to moorland burning. Therefore, to obtain the requested data would require extensive records analysis and this would incur disproportionate costs.