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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of legal provision relating to rights to grant or withhold access to caves.

Defra has made no assessment of the effectiveness of legal provision relating to rights to grant or withhold access to caves. Cavers may use particular cave systems, where use has been traditional, or where the landowner allows or has given specific permission for cavers to do so.