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PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
(28 August 2026)

Question Asked

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many wildfires took place in moorland in the last five years.

Asked by:
Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour)

Answer

MHCLG collects data on incidents attended by Fire and Rescue Services (FRSs) in England including information on the fire type, location type and source of ignition.

However, wildfires are not currently a recorded fire type, and moorland is not a recorded location type. MHCLG does collect data on outdoor primary and secondary fires in FIRE0303. Outdoor fires by similar available outdoor location types such as “grassland, woodland and crops” are also available in this table.

MHCLG also collects data on primary fires by source of ignition in FIRE0602, which includes barbecues. Secondary fires are excluded as MHCLG does not collect details on cause of secondary fires. However, the data does not specify whether the barbecue was disposable. Therefore, MHCLG cannot provide figures specifically for fires attributed to disposable barbecues.

The number of primary fires in England where the source of ignition was recorded as “barbecue” in the last 5 years was:

  • 346 in 2025/26
  • 238 in 2024/25
  • 267 in 2023/24
  • 350 in 2022/23
  • 291 in 2021/22

These figures should be interpreted as fires where “barbecue” was recorded as the source of ignition, rather than fires attributed to disposable barbecues.


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