Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the levels of capability and readiness of the Armed Forces and civil emergency services to respond to wildfires.

Wildfire response is the responsibility of local Fire and Rescue Services. In England, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) is the lead government department for fire and rescue policy, while responsibility in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland sits with the devolved governments. Together, these organisations are responsible for assessing wildfire risk, maintaining appropriate levels of capability and readiness at the local level and managing the response to incidents.

Defence continues to assess its own ability to support any wildfire response in line with affordability and overall effectiveness. Defence has a range of capabilities that may be made available through Military Aid to the Civil Authorities (MACA), subject to operational availability and competing Defence commitments. These include personnel, engineering and logistics support, command and control, reconnaissance and specialist capabilities. However, these capabilities are primarily maintained for Defence tasks and not all are held at readiness specifically for domestic wildfire response.