Defra confirms burning licences remain open for wildfire risk

Defra has confirmed that land managers in England can still apply for a licence to burn vegetation on deep peat where wildfire risk is evidenced and no practical alternative exists. The confirmation, in a written answer from Defra minister Jenny Riddell-Carpenter to Sir Julian Smith MP, was one of 40 parliamentary answers on moorland management given between 7 and 11 September and analysed by the Moorland Association this week.

What did ministers tell MPs about burning?

The association’s summary counts answers from eight Government departments in a single week, 19 of them from Defra. Alongside the burning licence confirmation, ministers admitted that figures for how much peat was destroyed by the 2025 wildfires “are not yet available”, while environment minister Emma Hardy set out £300m for standalone natural flood management schemes to 2036 and £85m for peatland restoration by 2030.

The association notes that Defra has so far named nature recovery experts, but not land managers, among those shaping its forthcoming Wildfire Action Plan, and says that omission is the week’s most telling detail for keepers and moor owners.

Four thousand years of carbon, gone in days

The policy argument comes as Bangor University researchers count the cost of this summer’s Welsh wildfires. A survey team led by Professor Davey Jones estimates that about 10cm of soil was lost at Sychnant Pass above Conwy, where about 200 acres burned in July, describing it as “4,000 years of carbon gone in a single event”. About 2,760 acres burned across north Wales in the July peak, and the team will return at six, 12 and 24 months to track recovery.

Why does fuel load matter to gamekeepers?

The Moorland Association argues that fuel load is the one wildfire variable land managers can actually control, and that cutting and licensed cool burning are the tools that control it. According to the association, 676,628ha of English deep peat has been subject to burning constraints since 30 September 2025, which it says makes the licensing route, and who gets a say in the Wildfire Action Plan, a live question for every keepered moor this autumn.

What happens next?

Further parliamentary answers on prescribed burning are awaited, and the association says it will keep pressing for fuel management to be treated as part of peatland restoration rather than its enemy. The Wildfire Action Plan is expected to set the framework; land managers are pushing for a seat at the table before it is drafted.