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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of climate change on the prevalence of wildfires in the UK.

Under the 2008 Climate Change Act, the Government is required to publish every five years a UK Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA). The likely effect of climate change on the prevalence of wildfires in the UK is considered in the evidence report underpinning the 2017 CCRA, which was published in June 2016.

Since the publication of the CCRA, this July we published the National Adaptation Programme which sets out actions that the Forestry Commission will carry out over the next five years to ensure that woodlands are more resilient to natural hazards, including wildfires.

In terms of moorland wildfires, Defra is currently conducting a targeted policy review that will look at the relationship between land management and wildfire.