Temporary disposable barbecue ban over wildfire risk

A total of 1,017 wildfires have been recorded in England and Wales this year, according to data shared by the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC), which matches last year’s record.

Disposable barbecues “cannot be considered a safe product” in the current conditions and they “must not be made available for sale either in store or online at the current time” in Great Britain, according to the advice published by the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (DBIST)., external

The ban applies to England, Scotland and Wales, but not Northern Ireland.

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said the measures were “common-sense steps to protect lives and the environment.”

All retailers will be receiving guidance about the change, which will be kept under review, Burnham told the BBC.

Burnham also said some of the wildfires burning across the country will have been started by disposable barbecues.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live’s Matt Chorley, the prime minister said: “We’ve got 37 fires across England and Wales right now, four of them are major incidents.”

He added: “We’re going into a difficult weekend, please just think about the situation that we’re in.

“Britain is a tinderbox right now. Setting a fire in any outdoor setting of any kind is a risk to other people’s homes, it’s a risk to other people’s lives, don’t do it, please don’t do it.”

Many large retailers and supermarkets had already voluntarily stopped selling the devices under a framework agreed in 2023, external between fire chiefs and the British Retail Consortium.

It said that retailers should suspend sales once an extreme heat event has been declared as imminent, or in response to “reasonable, evidence based” requests from local councils.

David Skaith, the elected Labour mayor for York and North Yorkshire who has been campaigning for a ban on single-use grills, urged the prime minister to make it permanent.

He told the BBC: “We know the risks that disposable barbecues have been causing and to have a ban on them is much-needed, much-called-for and I hope it becomes long-term.”