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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what powers they intend to give local authorities to alter the status of routes which have in the past been legally recorded on definitive maps of public rights of way as restricted byways with provision for access by horse-drawn and other non-mechanically propelled vehicles.

The Government does not plan to introduce any new powers in primary legislation to specifically give local authorities the ability to alter the status of restricted byways or any other type of public right of way.

The legal framework governing public rights of way has been reviewed by a stakeholder working group, which recommended a package of reforms which are now being implemented through provisions included in the Deregulation Act 2015.