What is happening with enforcement?

Ready to Burn is a Defra scheme that Woodsure administers on their behalf. As we move into the heating season, especially one with such an unprecedented level of sales due to the increases in energy prices, we are aware that there are still some suppliers that have not yet achieved Ready to Burn certification.

Woodsure contacted many wood fuel suppliers across the country ahead of the legislation going into effect on May 1st 2021 to ensure that people were prepared. Unfortunately, there are still some suppliers who haven’t heard of or have been misinformed about the Ready to Burn scheme and its legal requirement for the domestic sale of firewood, wooden briquettes, and kindling in England, in quantities under 2m³. This includes suppliers who sell into England from outside of the country.

Enforcement for those who do not join Ready to Burn and continue trading without this legal requirement is dealt with by the local councils and trading standards. This can result in fines per instance of £300 and could lead to a court hearing. Ideally, we do not wish to see anyone get to that point, so we continue to progress businesses to get certified as quickly as possible. We also work with Local Authorities and Defra for those cases that we are unable to progress.

In addition, we regularly engage with local councils through quarterly newsletters and have provided a range of Ready to Burn assets to them to help with their campaigns and raise awareness. We are pleased to be working in conjunction with Wiltshire Trading Standards on a campaign to raise awareness of the Ready to Burn scheme with fuel suppliers in their local area. In turn, helping homeowners burn better. We have also seen an increase in a few Trading Standards sharing Ready to Burn messaging on social media.