Sir Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress his Department has made on its wildfires review.

Dr Thérèse Coffey, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Environment: The Defra wildfire review on our future approach to land management (in the context of future mitigation of wildfire) is ongoing. The report will incorporate evidence, reviews and guidance currently being gathered. This includes a review of evidence on wildfire and its management, including the social science behind this. This is currently being conducted by Natural England and I expect that to be published before the end of June 2019. The Defra review will then be published shortly after. This will then be used to inform future wildfire management planning.

Natural England is working with the Met Office and the National Parks to objectively review the operation of the Fire Severity Index (FSI), based on the relevant science. The outcome of this review will include any recommendations for improvements to the FSI system.

Defra’s Uplands Management Group are also in the process of producing moorland wildfire mitigation guidance. Furthermore, the England & Wales Wildfire Forum (EWWF) hosted a stakeholder workshop in February on behalf of Defra the outputs of which will be used to feed into the review.

Hansard

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