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Therefore, it is not strictly true that muirburn can happen only if

“no other method of vegetation control is available.”

It may need to be—

My question is for Bruce Farquharson. You said that muirburn is one of the most effective—if the riskiest—ways of managing wildfire. From your experience, can you suggest any other tools that would be useful in this respect? Is the regulatory framework appropriately designed for that kind of activity?

Should there be a duty on people to manage the fuel load? You talked about people’s duty to mitigate fire risk in public buildings. Should there be a duty on land managers to mitigate fire risk?

My reading of the regulations is that, if something happens, the provision can be brought back into force, and the five-year period is to allow the agriculture bill to put in place something that will take over from it. Perhaps we can ask for confirmation of that. Moreover, we should make a note to look at this issue when we come to consider the agriculture bill, to ensure that it is doing what we have assumed to be the plan.

So, you are not able to provide that at the moment.

I have a small supplementary on Robbie Kernahan’s answer about tracking muirburn. You said that you could not tell whether it was muirburn fires or wildfires. Are you perhaps able to track that by making reference to the fire service? It would be aware of what was a wildfire and would not be involved in a managed muirburn.

Will the new licensing scheme that is proposed in the bill strengthen the role of the muirburn code, and will that mean that best practice is more prevalent?

Yes—thank you, convener.

We are aware that the Scottish Government might make an announcement about further regulation of snares and that it is gathering evidence on humane cable restraints. What are your views on that?

You talked earlier about the science around muirburn and whether it was beneficial and what the impact was. Why did you come to the conclusion that it should be subject to increased legal regulation?

So, as well as having licensing, should we also be saying to landowners that they need to control the risk of wildfire on their land, too?