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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to help ensure the adequacy of access to green spaces (a) in Ashfield constituency and (b) nationwide.

Defra does not hold information on the specific steps taken in Ashfield constituency on the adequacy of access to green spaces. However, we have committed that everyone should live within a 15-minute walk of a green or blue space and are working to reduce other barriers which prevent people from accessing green and blue spaces, such as physical challenges, lack of confidence and lack of information.

Progress towards meeting the commitment is being made through work already happening across Government to both increase available natural space and make it more accessible, such as the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government's Green Flag Awards; Natural England’s Green Infrastructure Framework and Defra's Access for All and Farming in Protected Landscapes programmes.

As of May 2025, we have published two new official statistics in development on walkability within England to the nearest green or blue space. We are in the process of developing next steps which will be announced in due course.