Official Report 190KB pdf
The next item of business is a statement by Neil Gray on the Cairngorms wildfire. Questions will be taken at the end of the statement, so there should be no interventions or interruptions.
14:35
Let me begin by thanking every single person and organisation that worked tirelessly to tackle and extinguish the recent wildfire in the Cairngorms national park. I am hugely appreciative of their work, commitment and efforts in demanding, challenging and changing circumstances.
I commend and am grateful for the outstanding efforts of more than 500 firefighters and staff of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, Police Scotland, other emergency responders, landowners, gamekeepers, volunteers, Forestry and Land Scotland, the Cairngorms National Park Authority, NatureScot and RSPB Scotland, as well as the many other volunteers involved. I would like to give special mention to those volunteers who gave up their time to help to fight the fire or to support those who were fighting it. I also thank all the people and communities in and around the Abernethy area who provided support to the response effort and those on the front line and the residents of Nethy Bridge, who supported one another during evacuation.
There is no doubt that the Cairngorms wildfire was a challenging incident for the various responders involved. I am grateful that no lives were lost and property was protected, but the fire has caused significant damage and has had a significant impact on people, businesses, communities and the natural environment and wildlife.
The fire was devastating for businesses in the area, which had to close at a crucial time. That is why we have provided £3 million to directly support affected businesses and to support the longer-term economic recovery of the area, which will be led by Highland Council, along with partners, including the Scottish Government. We all want that significant region of our country to recover and flourish.
I assure Parliament of the seriousness with which the fire was taken by the Government. From the outset of the fire, I was in regular communication with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and, throughout the duration of the fire, the SFRS provided consistent reassurance that its response was resourced appropriately and proportionately. Operational activity was continually reviewed to ensure that the response remained suitable for the scale and nature of the incident.
However, let me be clear: the SFRS, as our national fire service, has the statutory responsibility for leading the response to fires wherever and whenever they occur, and is an expert in doing so. The SFRS frequently attends wildfires, 58 of which have been recorded so far this year. Thankfully, most are quickly extinguished.
There has been a range of commentary on what could have been done differently and what lessons could be learned, and it is important that we reflect on concerns that people have raised. As part of that process, there will be a multi-agency review and debrief to examine the specific circumstances of the incident and to capture learning, including on how the SFRS can work more effectively with partner organisations, landowners and volunteers. I am keen for that review to be as inclusive as possible and for it to include a range of local interests as well as public agencies.
That work is in addition to the urgent review of the Government’s strategic action plan on wildfires, which sets out a co-ordinated approach through 18 actions across the three pillars of prevention, preparedness and response. I want to ensure that we are taking the action that is needed at the appropriate pace and scale in the light of the increasing risks that we face.
I am also aware that, throughout the wildfire, partner knowledge, specialist capability and local expertise were crucial to helping to bring the fire to a conclusion. I know that some members of the local community felt that their voices were not listened to. That has reinforced the need for clear communication and, importantly, engagement with local residents, landowners and businesses during significant incidents. The SFRS and the Scottish resilience partnership are already considering those issues.
A new concept of operations was put in place earlier this year to guide the SFRS and other emergency services in working effectively with landowners and other partners when dealing with significant-scale wildfires. The Cairngorms wildfire was one of the first major tests of its use, and the operational review will consider how it has worked and what learning needs to be incorporated in it. I would expect a revised and updated concept of operations to be in place and to be properly tested and exercised ahead of the next wildfire season.
The best solution is to stop wildfires happening in the first place. Some significant steps have already been taken, for example to ban disposable barbecues and other open fires in the Cairngorms national park, and the SFRS issues wildfire danger assessments when risks are particularly high. I also welcome the steps that the United Kingdom Government has taken to restrict the sale of disposable barbecues across the UK. I believe that that measure needs to be considered on a more permanent basis when there is a risk of wildfires.
The review will also consider the land management practices that are required to prevent and hinder the spread of wildfires. The strategic plan already contains a number of actions to support that aim, including new tools for wildfire prevention and management that have been introduced through the implementation of the Natural Environment (Scotland) Act 2026. Among those tools are new fixed-penalty notice powers to help to enforce fire management byelaws in the Cairngorms national park. We will work with land managers to consider appropriate wildfire mitigation measures, which may include vegetation management, maintenance of access tracks, firebreaks and water access points. As part of the review, we are also examining how we can significantly improve public information ahead of the next wildfire season. That will involve a combination of preventative public communications and an enhanced system of wildfire danger assessments.
It is also clear that, if we are to face an increase in the risk of wildfires, we need to consider an increase in aerial support. That is an important resource in tackling wildfires, particularly in areas where access and terrain are difficult. Operational commanders have made it clear that aerial support is not a silver bullet that immediately extinguishes every fire as soon as it is deployed and that it is most effective in combination with a properly resourced ground attack. However, it is a matter of record that helicopter firefighting assets were not available at the beginning of the Cairngorms wildfire and came on site only within around 36 hours after the start of the incident. They were then used extensively throughout different phases of the incident, when they were available and when they could make an active contribution to the response effort.
The current system of aerial support is provided by commercial contractors. I pay particular tribute to the skills and commitment of those pilots and operators, as well as to those companies. However, there were times during the wildfire when additional aerial water bombing would have been helpful to supplement the resources that commercial operators under contract were already providing. That is why we requested military assistance for that specific purpose, at the request of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service. Although we had been made aware informally that the UK military did not have such assets in the UK, our position was that we would explore every option to put the required supports in place. I believed then, and I believe now, that it was right to put that request to the UK Government formally to allow it to explore every option that might be possible, including repatriating any assets that were based overseas.
The current contracting model is a complex process involving landowners purchasing support, which is then directed by the SFRS incident commander. Availability can vary, as those contractors also have a range of other commitments using the same assets. Indeed, the reality that we faced in this instance was that some of the helicopters were already committed to fighting a wildfire elsewhere.
The challenge of aerial support availability is not restricted to Scotland; there is a lack of capacity across the whole of the UK. I believe that fire and rescue services in England and Wales responded to 342 wildfires in the first six months of 2026 alone, including one in Derbyshire that burned for well over a month and a serious one in Oldham that destroyed hundreds of acres of moorland.
We need to improve on the current arrangements before the start of the next wildfire season. I can announce today that the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service will be in a position to put helicopter resources on standby as soon as the wildfire danger assessment process indicates that there is a need to do so, and the service will now have the ability to immediately mobilise those assets directly in support of firefighting operations. That is not a complete solution, but it is a meaningful improvement on the current situation. We are also commencing work immediately to improve aerial support availability, including options for four-nations collaboration and military support.
Wildfires are no longer a seasonal hazard; they are a direct impact of climate change, which is fuelling an increase in their frequency and severity. As everyone is aware, there has been extreme weather across the world this year, and wildfires were a feature across many European countries this summer with incredibly devastating impacts. Although I am thankful that we did not see the loss of life and property that was tragically experienced in France and Spain, which caused huge devastation and economic loss, there is no doubt that the Cairngorms wildfire caused huge damage.
The changing climate that countries across the world are dealing with will increase the risk of significant wildfires, which have a devastating impact on our communities, local ecology, businesses and livelihoods. The work that we are taking forward with stakeholders and partners will ensure that we are prepared to face those new challenges and risks. As our climate becomes warmer and drier and extreme weather patterns intensify, Scotland must strengthen its resilience and ability to prevent, prepare for and respond to wildfire events. That is exactly what we will do.
Thank you, cabinet secretary. I intend to allow around 20 minutes for questions. A large number of members wish to ask a question, so concise questions and answers would be helpful.
I am grateful to the cabinet secretary for providing advance sight of his statement and for the daily updates that he provided to me during the incident for cascading to concerned constituents.
An ounce of prevention is far better than a pound of cure, in common with what the cabinet secretary said in his statement. The cabinet secretary has announced £3 million to help communities and businesses to recover from the severe impact of this summer’s wildfires. However, over the period from 2023 to 2026, only £1.6 million was allocated to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service for dedicated wildfire capability. Support for communities after such events is essential, but that disparity raises serious questions about whether the Scottish National Party Government is placing enough emphasis on prevention and operational capability rather than simply funding recovery once the damage has been done.
Communities across the Highlands are directly exposed to the growing threat of wildfires. They need credible support before a fire takes hold, not just assistance after land, property and livelihoods—
Mr Currie, could you get to your question, please?
Of course, Deputy Presiding Officer.
Will the cabinet secretary explain how the Government expects to deliver a robust national wildfire strategy when front-line emergency response appears to receive less dedicated funding than post-incident community recovery and what monetary allocation will be provided for wildfire fighting equipment to keep Highland communities safe?
I appreciate the acknowledgement that the updates that my office and I provided to Mr Currie were useful for him to disseminate to his constituents.
On the support for capability as well as recovery, I set out in my statement the work that the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service is carrying out to expand its capability and what the Government is looking to do on aerial capability. However, that is not the end of the story. There is more work to be done through reviews of whether there are further capability requirements.
Mr Currie asked a direct question about access to equipment. The £1.6 million that has been made available to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service has allowed the purchase of additional all-terrain vehicles, fogging units, support vans, specialist personal protective equipment and further all-terrain trailers. We will keep under review any further requests that come through, to ensure that the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service is appropriately resourced to respond to the changing need.
Scottish Labour welcomes the review of the response to wildfires. The Cairngorms wildfire lasted longer and spread further than it needed to because the fire service did not have enough of the equipment that it needed. Scottish firefighters and volunteers put in heroic shifts to contain and extinguish the fires, but they were working beyond the point of exhaustion, critically supported by crews in control rooms and with resources drawn away from other regions of Scotland.
The Fire Brigades Union has long warned that the service needs to be properly equipped for threats that are due to climate change. However, the loss of 1,239 firefighters since 2012 and the crisis in the retained duty system are pushing the service to breaking point. Currently, 200 of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service’s 311 retained duty system appliances are unavailable due to insufficient retained duty system crew numbers. In relation to the cabinet secretary’s statement, where would the standby helicopter resources come from? What assessment has been undertaken regarding the suitability of the crewing arrangement for those specialist resources and the risk that they might be unavailable due to crew shortages on any given day?
There are many points that I wish to address in Pauline McNeill’s question. First, in relation to increased access to aerial support, that support will continue to come from commercial operators in the first instance. We want to ensure that it is available from the moment that the high risk of wildfire warnings come into play, so that we are in a better position with regard to its availability as early as possible.
Secondly, I do not think that it is right for Pauline McNeill to say that the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service had anything less than what it needed. She has suggested that the fire burned because the SFRS did not have access to what it needed, but, as I said in my statement, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service chief officers told me directly that they had appropriate resourcing throughout the wildfire. However, that is not to say that we cannot do more.
Ms McNeill also suggested that drawing resources from other parts of Scotland was a negative thing. To be able to draw on resources from other parts of the country with experience of fighting wildfires is a benefit of having a national fire service and a credit to it. The discussions that I have had recently with the FBU and the SFRS can be contrasted with the response and the capability that has been available in other parts of the United Kingdom through recent wildfires. However, we will continue to consider the points about capability and resourcing that Pauline McNeill has raised.
As was mentioned in the cabinet secretary’s statement, the UK military does not possess any helicopters with water-bombing capabilities. Given the prevalence of wildfires across the UK this summer, does the Scottish Government intend to engage with the UK Government to robustly make the case that the Ministry of Defence needs to acquire those capabilities as a matter of urgency?
Yes, it does, and yes, I will. I have pointed out the areas in which we are looking to provide the necessary resilience in a Scottish response, which I know that, given her constituency interests, Laura Mitchell is interested in. We are looking to increase water-bombing capability and will keep under review access to the likes of specialist PPE and other resources.
I also think that it is incumbent on the UK Government to look at the resilience posture that we have across the UK. The UK military is there for all of us; it is our resilience fallback for many areas. We will contact the UK Government to open a discussion on shared resources, including what the military could and should offer to us because of this rising risk. I know that stakeholders in that area are particularly interested in making the UK-wide resilience posture much stronger.
The Scottish Greens, too, welcome the review that the cabinet secretary has talked about, and I thank him for his update. I particularly welcome his commitment to a four-nations approach to aerial firefighting support, including fixed-wing aircraft, which I have been calling for throughout the crisis.
On prevention, which is essential for tackling the issue, what reassurances can the cabinet secretary give me that the Scottish Government will put resources into making the landscape more resilient through nature-based solutions, including by rewetting peatlands and creating wetlands? Will he convene a Scottish landscape resilience summit to ensure a cross-sector, multi-stakeholder approach to the issue?
My colleague Mr Fairlie has taken forward extensive work in that area, with colleagues, stakeholders and landowners, in order to take the best possible steps to put in place the right land management processes, to use those steps to prevent wildfires in the first place and to mitigate the spread of wildfires if they take hold.
The Strathy, which is the local newspaper, as I am sure the cabinet secretary knows, has today launched a campaign for better aerial support, so I welcome the cabinet secretary’s message that there have been improvements there, and I am already working on a letter to him to get some of the finer detail.
The cabinet secretary also gave his thanks to the many volunteers who helped with the fire. On 18 September, at 6 pm in Aviemore, many of them whom I have already met are coming together to talk about what they have learned from the fire. It is essential that someone from the Government is at that meeting. If not the Cabinet Secretary for Justice, can the Minister for Agriculture, Marine and the Islands or the Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action and Rural Affairs promise to be at that meeting?
Following Mr Eagle’s raising the issue on Tuesday night, I have already been exploring my availability, including the potential for remote participation in that meeting. I am keen—as I know other ministers are—to hear directly from stakeholders as part of the review, to make sure that it is multi-agency and that everybody is able to feed into the process of the wildfire strategy and its 18 recommendations.
We are moving as fast as possible, and we know the areas that we need to focus on. I hope that Mr Eagle gets a sense, from my statement and from the action that we—not just me, but Mr Fairlie, who has a lot of experience in this area—have taken, that we are exploring the right areas and that we will work collectively to achieve a better position when it comes to preventing wildfires from happening in the first place and then spreading.
I associate myself with the cabinet secretary’s thanks to all of the firefighters and volunteers who tackled the wildfire in my constituency. I also welcome the cabinet secretary’s announcement about aerial capability, which is a significant step forward.
This morning, a retained firefighter who was deployed to the Cairngorms told me that they worked 13-hour shifts without suitable wildfire PPE, with kits so heavy and hot that they ended up fighting the fire at times in their T-shirts. When I asked whether the fire service was adequately resourced for wildfires, their answer was simply no.
Why should members accept ministers’ assurances that resources were adequate when that is not the experience of firefighters on the front line?
I was receiving live commentary and representation from the likes of Laura Mitchell and Emma Roddick on the situation with regard to PPE. I was passing that information on to the chief fire officer, who has responsibility for ensuring that those fighting the fires are properly resourced.
I have already pointed out that part of the resource that has been given to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service to ensure that it has the necessary resources to tackle wildfires is a significant amount of specialist wildfire PPE—400 sets at a cost of £300,000 have been purchased. However, we are keeping the area under review as part of our discussions with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.
I am relieved to hear that provisions to allow byelaws to be introduced by local authorities will commence next month and that the cabinet secretary will work with the UK Government on restricting the sale of disposable barbecues, and on air support. However, for those of us with experience of waiting months for answers from UK ministers, a little more reassurance might be useful.
Can the cabinet secretary go into any more detail regarding what that engagement will look like and how the Scottish Government will ensure that action is taken here, wherever possible and as quickly as possible, to protect people, businesses and the environment in Scotland?
When stakeholders have asked me to get the UK Government to move faster on particular issues, I have given a commitment to them that I will make sure that engagement is done in a constructive way and not in a political way. I do not want this to become a constitutional issue. This is about ensuring the necessary resilience posture for the entire UK in response to an issue that has no borders and that we all face because of the climate emergency. I will make my representations to UK ministers in that vein.
However, given the very significant challenges that have been faced in other parts of the UK with regard to wildfires, I would also expect that such work would already be under way in Whitehall.
The cabinet secretary says that the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service will be in a position to put firefighting helicopter assets on standby as soon as they are assessed as being needed. I want to press him on the detail of that. Does that mean that, as of today, under that policy, a helicopter is guaranteed to be available immediately when requested and will be on standby, or are we still dependent on the helicopter not being hired by someone else? People in Strathspey deserve an answer to that urgent question.
I have said clearly that, from the moment that the wildfire risk is heightened, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service can use the contractual frameworks that are in place with commercial suppliers to ensure that commercially operated aerial support for tackling wildfires is on standby.
Disposable barbecues will continue to be a major problem for as long as they are available for purchase. They can reach temperatures of up to 450°C, and they stay hot for many hours after someone might think that they are out, with that heat going straight into dry soil, grass or underground peat. Convenience should never come before the safety of our countryside, our wildlife, our communities and, of course, our emergency services and volunteers. Will the cabinet secretary call on the UK Government to take the necessary decisive action to remove that hazard by permanently banning disposable barbecues?
I welcome the steps that were taken during the summer by the UK Government in response to the wildfires in England to restrict the sale of disposable barbecues across the UK, given the risk that they can pose to the environment, local communities and agricultural land, particularly during periods of warm and dry weather when the risk of wildfire is heightened. There is also a risk in other areas, including beaches, parks and moorlands, and there needs to be consideration of the issue on a more permanent basis when there is a high risk of wildfires. A more permanent approach would provide greater protection for communities and the environment and greater consistency for members of the public in understanding how they can act with due responsibility while out enjoying our natural environment.
A large number of members still want to come in.
I draw members’ attention to my entry in the register of members’ interests, which shows that I am a member of the Fire Brigades Union.
Alongside gamekeepers, farmers, crofters, foresters and conservation workers, retained firefighters were at the forefront of dealing with the Cairngorms wildfire, as we have heard so much about today. What discussions has the cabinet secretary had with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service about the crisis in recruitment in the retained duty system? Will the cabinet secretary ensure that capacity in the retained duty system will form part of the review that he has just announced?
I thank Mr MacKinnon, and I recognise his significant interest, given his experience. As I said earlier in the week, those issues were raised with me when I was on visits in Mr McArthur’s constituency in Orkney, as there have been challenges with recruiting retained firefighters in some of the northern isles. I want to get the balance right, as I am sure Mr MacKinnon does, and it is important to ensure that we have people on the retained firefighter roster who have the requisite training so that standards are high. However, I recognise that, in many of the communities that he represents, the people who are helping to ensure that communities can continue to function wear many hats. I continue to speak to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service about how we can ensure that we get the balance right.
Although wildfires are becoming an unwelcome occurrence in Scotland, many countries have been combating them for a number of years. How is the Scottish Government seeking to learn and engage with practitioners and Governments in parts of the world that, historically, have been more affected by wildfires and where we might expect to see them?
Mr MacGregor is absolutely right. I wish to assure him that we are looking beyond Scotland. That includes engagement with practitioners and wildlife networks across the UK and internationally, including in countries such as Canada and the United States, where wildfire management, community preparedness and integrated fire management are more developed than they are in the UK. We are already seeing practical examples of that being reflected in our approach, including in work around wildfire danger assessments, alerting, rural-urban interface mapping, community resilience models, integrated fire management and the data and mapping around tactical burning.
Fighting a wildfire is different from tackling a building fire. There are different equipment and welfare requirements, and there are different command and co-ordination complexities. Three years ago, the FBU report, “Scorched: Firefighters and resilience to wildfires”, pointed out a series of concerns—sun exposure, overlong shifts in challenging terrain, lack of suitable PPE despite well-understood fire effluent risks, training gaps and a shortage of welfare facilities. Many firefighters respond to wildfires from retained duty system stations that face crew and appliance shortages. What measures have been put in place to safeguard the health and wellbeing of our firefighters, mitigate exposures, allow firefighters to shower within the hour and reduce cumulative exposure at large-scale protracted wildfire incidents?
I very much appreciate the points that Ms Chapman raises. Again, those issues, including the points around decontamination, were raised during the debate on Tuesday evening. We are investing in and supporting the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service to invest in the likes of additional specialist wildfire PPE. The facilities that are available to firefighters are part of the issues that are under consideration around the review that was carried out by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service of its infrastructure. I will continue to talk to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service about its resource demands in that area.
There can now be little doubt that Scotland faces a serious and escalating threat from wildfires. What is the Scottish Government’s latest assessment of how vulnerable our landscapes, communities and infrastructure have become to that aspect of a changing climate?
There have been 58 wildfires in Scotland so far this year. We experienced our worst season for wildfires in recent memory in 2025, with 241 recorded wildfires, including the UK’s largest in Carrbridge and Dava moor, which burned nearly 10,000 hectares. The impact and risk are high.
Last year marked a significant escalation in wildfire frequency, intensity and impact, and climate change is increasing temperatures, extending dry spells and creating conditions in which wildfires can ignite and spread more easily, particularly in Scotland’s peatlands, woodlands and rural landscapes, but also, as we have seen in England and Wales, across the board.
As our climate becomes warmer and drier and as extreme weather patterns intensify, we must also strengthen our resilience, not just here in Scotland but across the UK, to ensure that we have the ability to prevent, prepare for and respond to wildfire events. That is why I have commissioned a review, and why I will be working with partners in Scotland and across the four nations to ensure that our response is commensurate.
The cabinet secretary talked about the importance of aerial support and acknowledged the lack of capacity, but that was a known issue. In March, the Government published a wildfire action plan that explicitly highlighted the lack of availability of helicopters. On 25 July, four months later, as the fires raged, the fire service told the Government that it needed but did not have four aerial firefighting assets. Did it get them, and if so, how soon was that following that request?
It is well acknowledged that this is not an issue that is isolated to us in Scotland. We were seeking to draw on the same commercial assets that other parts of the United Kingdom sought to draw on. That is why it is not only me who is suggesting that we need to have a better four-nations posture on the issue; our land managers are also asking for that.
That is why we are seeking to build our own domestic resilience—that is the announcement that I have made today—and why I will be working on a four-nations basis with other ministers to ensure that our resilience posture is commensurate with the risks that we now face.
That concludes the ministerial statement on the Cairngorms wildfire.