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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Answer of 17 January 2022 to Question 102527 on Wood-burning Stoves: Smoke Control Areas, if he will make an assessment of the effectiveness of (a) mechanisms for and (b) the performance of the external contractor for ensuring high standards in the (i) approval and (ii) testing processes for (A) individual and (B) ranges of appliances for receiving exemptions to burn unauthorised fuel in smoke control areas.

The Department has regular quarterly performance review meetings with the current contractor that delivers the Defra stove exemption certification scheme. These governance meetings focus on performance and delivery of the scheme and are also taken as an opportunity to drive efficiencies.

The testing of stoves is carried out by an independent third party. Stoves are tested against the standard set out in BSI published document 6434 and BS 3841. The independent third party provides test reports to the Department’s contractor who reviews them to ensure that the smoke emissions limits of less than 5g of smoke per hour are not exceeded with the tested fuels.