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 extend the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 to include (a) rivers, (b) woods and (c) Green Belt land.

We recognise the importance of enabling access to the countryside, for people’s health and wellbeing. That is why we have established 13 community forests, alongside our substantial programmes to create more green space and significantly expand National Trails, and we have created and restored some 360,000 football fields of habitat since 2010. We have no plans to change the Rights of Way Act.