Defra stands by burning rules despite fuel-load science

Defra has commissioned a study of how different peatland management practices, burning among them, build resistance to wildfire, the department has revealed while rejecting a challenge to its tightened burning rules. The commitment came in a written answer to Kevin Hollinrake, Conservative MP for Thirsk and Malton, who asked what assessment ministers had made of research showing prescribed burning reduces the fine fuels that feed wildfires while cutting adds them to the litter layer.

What did the minister say about the burning evidence?

Defra minister Jenny Riddell-Carpenter said the Heather and Grass etc Burning (England) Regulations 2021 were amended in September 2025, “expanding restrictions on unnecessary burning practices, to enhance protection of upland deep peat and improve the resilience of moorlands”.

“A range of new scientific evidence, subject to appropriate academic rigour, was assessed within the context of the cumulative evidence base,” she said in the answer, dated 14 September. “Evidence showed that burning, especially repeated burning, results in a departure from the typical structure of these habitats and can impact how they function. The Government remains satisfied that the Regulations are supported by the available evidence.”

The science the question put to Defra

The study in question, by Fielding et al (2025), appeared in the British Ecological Society journal, Ecological Solutions and Evidence. Comparing prescribed burning with two methods of cutting at two heather-dominated moorland sites in north-east Scotland, it found that burning removed fine attached vegetation without adding to the moss and litter layer, while brush cutting transferred cut fine heather into it, and it suggested the changes that follow burning may serve to reduce future wildfire risk.

Cutting is the principal fuel management tool left to managers of deep peat without a licence, which is what gives the finding its edge. Restrictions on burning have applied to upland deep peat in England since 30 September 2025, with the Moorland Association putting the area under constraint at more than 676,000ha.

What happens next

Defra’s new wildfire and peatland study, commissioned under the Third National Adaptation Programme, will look at the effectiveness of a range of peatland land management systems and practices in creating wildfire resilience. The department says it “will continue to monitor these results and engage with key stakeholders”.

Burning licences remain available where wildfire risk is evidenced and there is no practical alternative, as Defra confirmed to MPs earlier this month. The Fielding study can be read in full in Ecological Solutions and Evidence, linked below.