Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to improve (a) access to and (b) safety in parks for women and girls.

(a) As part of our commitment outlined in the Environmental Improvement Plan, we are actively working across government to ensure that everyone can live within a 15-minute walk of a green or blue space. This includes delivering policies such as completing the King Charles III England Coast Path, which will be the longest coastal walking route in the world and creating new open access land within the coastal margin; designating Wainwright’s coast to coast path across the North of England as a new National Trail; and Delivering the £9m Levelling Up Parks Fund to improve green space in over 100 disadvantaged neighbourhoods.

(b) The Government has invested £125 million through the Safer Streets and Safety of Women at Night Funds to make streets safer for women and girls, including in public spaces. The current round of the Safer Streets Fund, Round 4, focuses on tackling violence against women and girls in public places. It has allocated £50 million for 111 projects, supporting interventions such as enhanced street lighting, CCTV installation, bystander training programs, taxi marshals, and educational and awareness raising initiatives. These measures aim to create safer environments and enhance public safety, contributing to increased trust in the police and making communities feel safer. The Government is also supporting the Sex-Based Harassment in Public Bill which would make public sexual harassment a specific offence. The Department for Transport is revising the Manual for Streets guidance which will bring out more explicitly the role that measures such as better lighting and natural surveillance can play in helping women, particularly, feel safer.