Internal NE Briefing Obtained by MA Raises Eyebrows Over Wildfire Rules

The Moorland Association has obtained an internal Natural England (NE) briefing on wildfire procedures (shown below). This is part of a wider set of “Wildfire Lines to Take” that raises serious questions about the agency’s approach to early-stage fire response on the uplands.

Buried within the document is a striking instruction:

NE staff must not attempt to tackle a wildfire if the flame length is above 50 cm or the fire covers more than 1m².

To anyone familiar with moorland wildfire behaviour, this threshold is astonishingly low. A 50cm flame is little more than knee-height. A 1m² fire patch is about the size of a small table. These are the incipient fires that trained land managers and gamekeepers stop every year.

They do so quickly, safely and often with nothing more than beaters and basic hand tools.

Early action at this scale prevents the landscape-scale wildfires that cause enormous ecological, carbon and public-health damage.

Yet NE’s internal rule instructs staff to stand back and call the Fire and Rescue Service instead.

In much of England’s uplands, waiting for a fire engine to arrive can take crucial minutes, or far longer. During this time a tiny flame can grow into a serious, fast-moving incident. The irony is hard to miss, at the same time that government departments, fire services and moorland groups are urging rapid initial attack, NE’s own briefing appears to prohibit its staff from engaging in exactly that.

To be clear, no one expects NE staff to take unnecessary risks. Safety is paramount. But the thresholds set here are so restrictive that they effectively remove NE from participating in the most basic and lowest-risk stage of wildfire suppression. This is activity that every other upland body and estate staff are trained and equipped to undertake.

This inconsistency matters. England urgently needs a coherent approach to wildfire preparedness, one that embraces coordinated early response and recognises the realities of remote landscapes. If NE’s internal guidance genuinely prevents staff from intervening at the safest and most effective moment, then the agency risks undermining the very resilience agenda it publicly supports.

The Moorland Association is calling for full transparency and an urgent review of this policy. Wildfire prevention is a shared responsibility. It is one that depends on everyone, including Natural England, being empowered to act when seconds count.

📧 Stay Updated on All Moorland Issues: Sign Up for Our Free Newsletter.