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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, under the provisions of the Deregulation Bill, rights of way officers have a duty to persuade objectors to a footpath deregulation order agreed by a county council to correct an error in the definitive footpath map in order to prevent an appeal to the Secretary of State.

It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member