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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will take steps to help ensure that public (a) footpaths and (b) rights of way are accessible.

Local authorities are responsible for the management and maintenance of public rights of way, including making sure they are in a fit state for public use, are visible and free from obstructions, as well as ensuring landowners comply with their duty to maintain public rights of way that cross their land.

Local authorities are required to keep a Rights of Way Improvement Plan to plan improvements to the rights of way network in their area, which are usually available on the authority’s website. This must include an assessment of the local rights of way, including the condition of the network, and consulting of interested parties including local access forums.

The Government is delivering the £14.5 million ‘Access for All’ programme, which consists of a package of targeted measures in our protected landscapes, National Trails, forests and the wider countryside to make access to green and blue spaces more inclusive. We are also working to complete the King Charles III England Coast Path (KCIIIECP) which, at around 2,700 miles, will be the longest waymarked and maintained coast walking route in the world. Over 1,000 miles are already open and we aim to make the KCIIIECP as accessible as possible. We are also designating Wainwright’s coast to coast route across the north of England as a National Trail and have considered accessibility from the start. We remain committed to implementing the rights of way reforms package which will streamline processes for the recording of rights of way, benefiting users, landowners and local authorities.