Lord Sharma (Con)
My Lords, I congratulate my noble friend Lord Caithness on bringing this debate forward. I also congratulate my noble friends Lord Jack and Lord Gove on their excellent maiden speeches. It was a particular joy to serve alongside them in Cabinet—I actually mean that—and I am sure that they will add enormously to the expertise in your Lordships’ House.
Noble Lords have highlighted their own experiences of wildfires domestically and of dealing with them, but I want to draw on an international example that I believe provides some learnings. A few years ago, I went to Seattle to attend a clean energy conference. We flew in overnight and, even from tens of thousands of feet in the air, as you looked out of the aircraft window, you could literally see the ground on fire down in Washington state below. At the time, terrible wildfires were raging across the state; as the plane drew lower, you could make out huge patches of forest on fire. I do not exaggerate when I say that it felt to me like looking into the jaws of hell. When we landed, we experienced the acrid smell generated by the wildfires and pollution; it hung like a heavy, choking cloak in the air.
I met some of the politicians and officials in the state government who were tasked with tackling these wildfires. They told me that, over the years, the fires have become more frequent and ferocious. One of the key learnings was effective preparedness: investing in equipment such as bulldozers and excavators; fitting aircraft with infra-red sensors and fire-mapping technology; recruiting more firefighters; sharing their learnings with other states prone to wildfires; and having in place equipment-sharing agreements with those states as well.
Of course, the wildfires that we experience in the UK are generally not as severe as those in North America—at least, so far—but, as we have heard in this debate, their frequency is on the rise and climate change is making things worse. I welcome the Government’s continued commitment to climate action more generally and to sticking with the aim of achieving net zero by 2050. I also welcome the Climate Change Committee’s progress report on adaptation from earlier this year, which called on the Government to create and implement a cross-departmental strategy with external shareholders in order to identify and mitigate the risks of wildfires.
I believe that this strategy should include an international component, with UK specialist wildfire experts learning and sharing effective mitigation actions, as well as training jointly with their counterparts in other nations, so that we can help each other when needed. That is currently happening across some jurisdictions. I also think that we need a national wildfire-fighting equipment asset register to allow for more effective sharing of resources across the country when they are needed. I look forward to the Minister’s feedback on these suggestions.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (Lord Khan of Burnley) (Lab)
My Lords, it is a privilege to stand before you today to address the important topic of wildfire risk and the devastating impacts that wildfires can have on our communities. I thank the noble Earl, Lord Caithness, for raising this important debate and for his invaluable insight in this area. I also welcome the noble Lords, Lord Jack of Courance and Lord Gove, to their places and thank them for their valued maiden contributions, especially in the light of the time restriction of only three minutes.
Before I go further, however, this weekend marks the eighth anniversary of the Grenfell Tower tragedy. I know our thoughts are with the bereaved families, survivors and residents as they remember those who lost their lives. The Grenfell Tower inquiry has laid bare system failures, held government and industry to account and is now laying the foundation for urgent reform. We are determined to ensure that no community ever again suffers the way it has.
I also pay tribute to two firefighters, Jennie Logan and Martyn Sadler, who tragically lost their lives in the line of duty last month in Oxfordshire alongside Dave Chester, a member of the public. Two other firefighters were hospitalised in the same incident. My thoughts are with the families, friends and colleagues who have been impacted by this tragic event. Firefighters and wider fire and rescue service workers act with incredible dedication and bravery every day to protect the public. They will always have our deepest respect and gratitude.
Such events bring the risk we have been discussing into sharp focus, not least as outdoor fires, including wildfires, are expected by many academics to increase in frequency and impact in the future, predominantly driven by climate change. We saw this in 2022, the UK’s hottest year on record, which saw more than 20,000 hectares of land in England burned, the destruction of more than 70 properties across the UK and at least 14 fire and rescue services declaring major incidents in their areas as they responded to numerous concurrent wildfires across the country.
This Government are committed to reducing this risk alongside mitigating the impacts they cause. Preparing for the future means not only tackling climate and nature emergencies but adapting to the changes they will bring to our environment. I recognise that wildfire is a complex area that cuts across many areas of interest and responsibilities. While my department, MHCLG, is the lead government department for this risk, we are reliant upon the good work of our partners. They include Defra and its agencies as well as the land management and fire sectors. We are also working with the devolved Administrations and fire services in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. We need to continue and build our close working arrangements to share best practice learning on tackling wildfires effectively. It is vital that we take a co-ordinated approach to this risk, working in lockstep with our partners to prevent and mitigate the impact on people, property, habitats, livestock, natural capital and wildlife effectively.
To directly answer the point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Anelay, I have asked the relevant Minister, Alex Norris, to meet with devolved departments. There is no proposal, in addition to the question, to ban the barbecue, but the Local Government Minister and officials are already talking to local government officials.
This Government understand the risks and complexities of this area, which is why my officials have been undertaking extensive engagement with stakeholders to identify policy options to enhance our resilience and responses to the wildfires. This has informed a comprehensive policy-scoping report to inform next steps.
Fire and rescue services are actively preparing for wildfires, as they are required to plan for the foreseeable risks in their area through their community risk management plans. These plans also have regard to the views of other key local responders. Following the events of 2022, the National Fire Chiefs Council—NFCC—has worked to extract learning and good practice from the incidents attended, with a view to shaping the future of wildfire prevention, community education and response. The NFCC is progressing actions that emerged from this, including improvements to training, national resilience and operational response. In 2024, the Government took an additional step by funding a national resilience wildfire adviser. This role is an operational role within the fire services, focused on evaluating what further national capabilities are needed to boost resilience against wildfires and ensure that efforts across the sector are well co-ordinated.
I move to some of the points raised in the debate, starting off with that from the noble Earl, Lord Caithness, about definition, which was also raised by the noble Earl, Lord Russell. The Government are committed to ensuring that we continue to improve the data collected on wildfires. This will be invaluable in shaping future advice and policy decisions in this space. At present, operational data on wildfires that is collected by the national resilience reporting tool, while a good proxy, cannot be used as an official statistic, as it may be incomplete or inaccurate and is gathered primarily to inform incident response. Improvements are being driven through the introduction of the new fire and rescue data platform—a new incident reporting tool used by fire and rescue services. This will introduce a formal definition of a wildfire, which will enable the Government to collect official data on the number of incidents and publish official statistics.
The noble Earl said that no decision should be made until we have the science available. The Government are alive to this evolving risk, and we are committed to putting in place the necessary measures to mitigate the impacts while driving forward the UK’s resilience and response to the wildfires.
To reassure the noble Earl on the issue of consultation, general consultations generally run between four and 12 weeks as good practice. The eight-week consultation on the proposed changes to the Heather and Grass etc. Burning (England) Regulations 2021 has now closed. Defra is analysing the feedback, which will be used to inform next steps.
A number of noble Lords, particularly the noble Lord, Lord Jack, talked about land management. As many of your Lordships know, Defra has responsibility for the promotion of wildfire mitigation and adaptation planning to land managers. This is set out in more detail within the wildfire framework for England. Defra colleagues highlight that landowners and land managers are encouraged to adopt good quality wildfire management plans, and use sustainable methods to manage habitat and restore their peatland, as evidence shows—although not conclusively everywhere around the world—that wetter, healthy-functioning peatlands are more resilient to the impacts of wildfire.
I will not look to speak too much on behalf of another department, and I know that the noble Earl has some concerns and reflections, which I will pass on to Defra colleagues, but I am also aware of how important this issue is to Defra across its range of responsibilities. I thank the people there for their invaluable contributions to the wildfire scoping work to date, and my department looks forward to continuing to work with Defra colleagues on this issue.
In response to the noble Baroness, Lady Anelay, I return to the point about barbecues. The Government have taken lessons from the devastation we saw during the 2022 wildfire season, working across departments to increase the prominence of wildfire messaging to the public. This included developing government social media messaging around periods of high wildfire risk and including wildfire as part of the Cabinet Office’s newly developed resilience website.
I say to the noble Lord, Lord Sharma, who speaks with great expertise on climate change, that this Government are committed to ensuring that the UK is working with international partners to address wildfire risks. This includes through multilateral forums such as the United Nations. The Government encourage more exchanges on wildfire preparation, prevention, response and recovery, including through initiatives such as the Global Fire Management Hub established by the Food and Agriculture Organization and the UN Environment Programme. The hub brings key partners together to share best practice principles and create greater consistency in wildfire response. The noble Lord asked us to reflect further, and I will do so with my officials.
The noble Baroness, Lady Jones of Moulsecoomb, talked about national resilience and capability, which is a very important issue. The Government are committed to ensuring that fire and rescue services can draw on national life-saving capabilities, enabling them to respond effectively to large-scale or critical incidents. It is for this reason that the department funds the national resilience specialist capabilities, ensuring that national assets such as urban search and rescue, high volume pumps and CBRN decontamination are strategically located across the country for times of need. In 2024-25, the grant to all fire and rescue services hosting this equipment amounted to £17.9 million. In addition, the department funds the national resilience lead authority in Merseyside with a grant amounting to £16.6 million for 2024-25. For this, it delivers a key range of services, including capability assurance and specialist training.
A number of noble Lords alluded to Natural England. The noble Earl, Lord Caithness, asked a question during our recent debate in the Chamber on the wildfire strategy and action plan. I took away an action to engage Natural England on its use of scientific advice when advising NGOs and other landowners on the risk of wildfire. I was pleased to confirm to the noble Earl that Natural England utilises the latest scientific advice as part of these activities. This is set out in its overarching science, evidence and evaluation strategy. Natural England’s science and evidence work involves assembling and commissioning such advice, then using it to underpin advice, decisions and actions. The strategy also helps to embed and promote its evidence standard.
In conclusion, I thank all noble Lords who have contributed to this important debate. Wildfire is a topic that arouses strong emotions. It is part of a range of climate risks we need to adapt to in order to protect our future. I recognise the level of concern out there. We are seeing it in myriad other areas, whether that is flooding or more extreme weather events, or in the impact of global warming on wider geopolitics and the movement of people.
This Government recognise the challenges and welcome the spotlight from this debate. I believe that with the right actions and the right collaboration we can make a difference to how our country manages wildfire, both now and into the future. This will not be an easy task, but we are committed to working through these challenges with our partners. To do this, we will need to take an approach that improves our resilience and reduces the impacts from wildfires, driven through enhanced integration between stakeholders.
We have made good progress in driving improvements in data collection to address gaps; in the way we issue public communications to protect life and property; and in providing funding for a national resilience wildfire adviser in the fire service. The policy scoping work is exploring where we can go further and how we can better work across divides. This is a vital area that I am proud to be delivering. I thank again the noble Earl, Lord Caithness, for initiating this important debate, and all other noble Lords for their invaluable contributions.