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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of bringing forward legislation to introduce additional regulations on bonfires to help address the environmental risks posed by those fires.

Domestic bonfires are not illegal but local authorities discourage the burning of garden waste that can cause considerable localised air pollution, potentially causing both a nuisance and health impacts to the local community and surrounding biodiversity. Local authorities are responsible for investigating smoke from bonfires brought to their attention under Section 79 of the Environmental Protection Act, 1990. For a bonfire to count as a statutory nuisance it must unreasonably and substantially interfere with the use or enjoyment of a home or other premises, injure health or be likely to injure health.

If they agree that a statutory nuisance is happening, has happened or will happen in the future, councils must serve an abatement notice (usually on the person responsible). This could result in an unlimited fine if the recipient does not follow the rules of the abatement notice. It could also result in prosecution and an additional fine if found guilty in a Magistrates Court.

At this present time, we are not planning any new measures restricting bonfires. Government guidance on the rules about garden bonfires is available at: https://www.gov.uk/garden-bonfires-rules.

Additionally, to improve awareness among householders, Defra have created a practical guide titled ‘Smoke Control Areas: Do you know the rules?’ and we encourage local authorities to distribute these. This advises householders that they should not burn treated wood such as fence panels as this can emit harmful fumes and toxic pollutants. It also advises that they should be considerate towards their neighbours when lighting bonfires and should always take care not to cause a smoke nuisance. Further materials encouraging people to burn better and reduce harmful emissions can be found at https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/library/burnbetter/.