Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Written Ministerial Statement of 26 October 2026 on the wildfire summit (HCWS418), whether an assessment was made of the potential merits of including changes to
Answer
At the Wildfire Summit, the Government announced a range of measures to strengthen wildfire prevention and resilience, including support for land management and land use change. Defra recognises that effective land management is critical to increase resilience to wildfire. Existing Defra schemes provide several options which support vegetation management, such as scrub removal. At the summit, funding was also announced for additional prevention measures, such as fire breaks and fire ponds.
Verdict: AMBER (35/100)
This exchange has one question item, and the question itself is cut off, so it never states which land-use or management changes are being considered. The reply sets out the department's view that effective land management is central to wildfire resilience and lists existing schemes and funded measures. Because the changes in question are unidentified, the reply cannot be clearly matched to them, so it gives only a partial answer that a member of the public would likely need to follow up.
How we got there
| Question item | Coverage | Specificity | Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|
| What is the department's assessment or view of the potential merits of including changes to (the question text is truncated and the subject of the changes is not stated) | Partially Addressed | Direct | The question item is truncated and never states what changes are being considered, so it cannot be confirmed which subject it names. The reply does state the department's view that effective land management is critical to wildfire resilience (statement 2) and gives concrete existing schemes and funded measures (statements 3 and 4), which bear on a merits assessment of land management and land use changes. Because the subject of the changes is unknown, the match to the item is only partial. |