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

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support the restoration of footpaths in rural areas of England.

The Government recognises the importance of providing access to the outdoors for people’s health and wellbeing and are working to ensure this is safe and appropriate. We committed in our Environmental Improvement Plan to work across government to help ensure that everyone lives within 15 minutes’ walk of a green or blue space.

The Government is delivering a number of policies to increase access to nature including implementing a number of rights of way reforms which will streamline the process for adding new or lost footpaths to the rights of way network. Work is progressing on the England Coast Path, with nearly 800 miles now open to the public, and the designation of Wainwright’s coast to coast route across the north of England as a National Trail.

We are delivering the £14.5m ‘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. The Farming in Protected Landscape (FiPL) programme includes the provision for permissive access and capital items to support access to the countryside or improvements to access such as gates, stiles and interpretation.

Local highway authorities are responsible for the management and maintenance of existing public rights of way and are required to keep a Rights of Way Improvement Plan (ROWIP) to plan improvements to the rights of way network in their area. This must include an assessment of the local rights of way including the condition of the network.