What did Natural England confirm? Urgent cases can be escalated through the regulator’s Open Access Contact Centre. The association has given Natural England five working days to respond, after which it intends to publish the correspondence. The wider question, of whether the Fire Severity Index alone should decide when a moor can be closed, now sits with Defra. Natural England treats level 5, the highest, as the point at which a fire prevention access restriction on open access land can be activated.