Table 1.

Structure of wildfire management in England; sectors, key agencies and their contributions to wildfire management.

sector	organization/agency/group	scale	contributions to wildfire management
Contingency planning	— Cabinet Office Civil Contingency Secretariat	national	— National Risk Assessment and public-facing version, National Risk Register. — Severe wildfire H58 added in 2013. Renewed in 2015
	— Department for Communities and Local Government Resilience and Emergency Planning Directorate	national	— Government department with ownership of wildfire hazard under Civil Contingencies Act 2004—due to change to the Home Office in April 2016 — Produce Fire Statistics GB; annual bulletin including statistics on outdoor fires attended by FRS
	— Scientific Advisory Group of Experts	national	— Co-opted advice from experts at times of emergency
	— Local Resilience Forums based within 39 Police Areas in England; cross-sector category 1 and 2 responders (police, fire, ambulance, etc.) and Local Authority emergency planners	regional	— Community Risk Registers which rank likelihood, impact and risk of ‘forest or moorland fire’ and ‘severe wildfire’ within a five-year period relative to other local risks
Fire	Chief Fire Officers Association, Wildfire Group, National Operations Programme Group	national	— Non-statutory groups working to develop best practice in recording and managing wildfire, e.g. Development of National Operations Programme Group wildfire guidance, and introduction of Firewise communities
	49 FRS in England and Wales, managed by regional Fire Authorities, and overseen by the DCLG due to change to the Home Office in April 2016 Single service in Scotland since 2014 Single service in Northern Ireland since 1950s	regional	Statutory  — Wildfire suppression  — Incident Risk Management Plans  — Incident Recording System since 2009, previously Fire Data Report System  — Provide agreement on wildfire prevention in Environmental Impact Assessments, Environmental Statements and some Countryside Stewardship options Voluntary  — Wildfire Operational Guidance (The Scottish Government 2013)  — Wildfire training developed by Northumberland FRS and other pioneering FRS
Environment	DEFRA Wildfire Group, within DEFRA Contingency Planning Team	national	— Advice to Cabinet Office Civil Contingency Secretariat and DCLG's Resilience and Emergency Planning Directorate for National Risk Register — Government and agency environmental and rural experts at times of emergency — Chair the former Best Practice Burning Group which consulted on Heather and Grass Burning Regulations 2007 and associated Code — Countryside Stewardship grants with wildfire prevention requirements for moorland and heathland
	Forestry Commission	national to local	— Champion of UK Forestry Standard, and guidelines linked to planning for wildfire in woodland and forests — Wildfire practice guidance for land managers — Wildfire contingency planning for forestry sector — Highlighting wildfire risk in deforestation Environmental Impact Assessments — Wildfire analysis of FRS Incident Recording System data for Great Britain GB — Impact of wildfire emissions and carbon storage
	Met Office	national	— Met Office Fire Severity Index developed for Natural England to regulate public access to statutory Access Land under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000
	Natural England	national to local	— Management plans for statutory protected areas—recent consideration of wildfire risk management — Member of former DEFRA Best Practice Burning Group, now Uplands Management Group — Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000; open-access land wildlife restrictions (linked to Met Office Fire Severity Index)
	Wildlife and landscape conservation groups: Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), National Trust, Wildlife Trusts, etc.	national to local	— RSPB as a member of former DEFRA Best Practice Burning Group, now Uplands Management Group — National Trust as a member of some local fire operations groups — Wildfire suppression — Land management of sites threatened by present and future wildfire incidents
	Land management community: practitioner associations such as the Moorland Association, the Heather Trust, Game and Wildlife Trust	national to local	— Tacit knowledge and skills in use of prescribed fire for moorland management — Members of former DEFRA Best Practice Burning Group, now Uplands Management Group — Membership of informal local wildfire groups — Key consultees for policy, plans and guidance — Wildfire prevention, suppression and recovery — Land management of sites threatened by present and future wildfire incidents
Under-represented sectors	Development control planning	regional to local	— National Planning Policy Framework (table 2), but relatively little engagement — Dorset and Thames Basin Heaths financial contributions from planning applications to help prevent heathland fires
	Department for Energy and Climate Change	national	— Consultations for Climate Change Risk Assessment and National Adaptation Plan (table 2)
	Insurance industry		— Insure land managers against escaped management burns
Cross-sector	England and Wales Wildfire Forum, Scottish Wildfire Forum	national	— Voluntary advocacy coalitions on wildfire. ‘go-to’ groups advising government Memberships spans all sectors listed above and others including infrastructure (Highways Agency, Network Rail, Ministry of Defence, etc.)
	Local wildfire groups, also known as Fire Operations Groups	regional and local	— Voluntary partnerships of local stakeholders including FRS, local land owners and managers and government agencies. Share equipment and training, develop Fire Plans
	Academic-led initiatives: e.g. — FireBeaters, 2006–2009, Edinburgh University — Fire Interdisciplinary Research in Ecosystem Services: fire and climate change in UK moorlands and heaths (FIRES) seminar series 2007–2009, University of Manchester with Universities of Edinburgh and Leeds, and Moors for the Future partnership. Peak District National Park — Knowledge for Wildfire (KfWf) Knowledge Exchange Fellowship, 2012–2016, University of Manchester	national	— FireBeaters collected data on vegetation fire incidents and carried out research on moorland fire behaviour — FIRES developed a cross-sector and cross-disciplinary community of researchers, practitioners and policymakers who work on prescribed fire and wildfire in the UK Produced FIRES policy brief [39]. Funded jointly by Economic and Social Research Council and Natural Environment Research Council — KfWf knowledge exchange network, events and projects, funded by the Natural Environment Research Council