Asked by: Baroness Scott of Needham Market (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to retain goals to improve access to and engagement with nature as part of the rapid review of the current Environmental Improvement Plan, announced on 30 July; and whether they intend to engage with stakeholders representing public access and recreation.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is committed to enhancing public access to nature, as evidenced by our manifesto commitment to create nine new national river walks and three new national forests. We are currently considering how best to continue to drive forward our goals in this area and we will be engaging with stakeholders as we do so.
Asked by: Baroness Scott of Needham Market (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have for the delivery of nine new river walks, how these will be selected, and what is the timetable for delivery.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra is progressing plans to designate nine new National River Walks across England, one in each region, to enhance access to nature. This is a priority for the department and we are currently considering several delivery options, as well as reviewing where existing river walks are in place. Further details will be provided in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Scott of Needham Market (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they still intend to ensure that the King Charles III England Coast Path is fully walkable by the end of 2024 and, if not, whether they have a revised timetable for delivery.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Unfortunately, the King Charles III England Coast Path (KCIIIECP) will not be fully walkable by the end of 2024. However, by the end of December 2024 up to 62% of the KCIIIECP will be completed, along with the wider coastal access rights between the path and mean low water (coastal margin), and provision to roll back the trail with an eroding coast and reduced occupiers’ liability towards the public that the KCIIIECP provides.
This will result in 95% of the English coast being walkable through a combination of completed KCIIIECP / coastal access rights (as above), public rights of way and de facto access.
Work continues on the KCIIIECP, with another 57 miles opening this week in Lincolnshire and more commencements planned this year. 1251 miles are now open and available for public use, with works taking place on another 1144 miles. Less than 300 miles are yet to be approved.
We are working at pace to ensure completion as soon as possible. We will develop a revised timetable with Natural England for 2025/2026 to determine when all 2700 miles of the KCIIIECP will be complete and open to public access.
Asked by: Baroness Scott of Needham Market (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to retain the public access offer within Environmental Land Management schemes so that more people can benefit from improved access to the countryside.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Presently Countryside Stewardship scheme supports land managers to offer educational access visits to school age children and care farming groups and also offers a supplement to support access to woodlands. In protected landscapes, the Farming in a Protected Landscape programme offers permissive access.
We are fully committed to the Environmental Land Management schemes. The government will optimise Environmental Land Management schemes over time, so they produce the right outcomes for all farmers - such as small, grassland, upland and tenanted farms - while delivering food security and nature recovery in a just and equitable way. This will also consider improved access to the countryside.
Asked by: Baroness Scott of Needham Market (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in deciding to reinstate a deadline for recording historic rights of way, what engagement took place between Ministers and organisations representing landowners and land managers.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Lord Chamberlain (HM Household)
Ministers had no engagement with the Country Land and Business Association and the National Farmers Union regarding the decision to reinstate the deadline for the recording of historic rights of way.
Asked by: Baroness Scott of Needham Market (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Benyon on 29 March (HL6810), what steps they are taking to ensure that the backlog of 4,000 applications for historic rights of way are assessed in a timely manner; and what discussions the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has had with the Department for Levelling-up, Housing and Communities about the funding required by local authorities to consider those applications.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Lord Chamberlain (HM Household)
The final Local Government Finance Settlement for 2023/24 makes available up to £59.7 billion for local government in England, the majority of which is un-ringfenced in recognition of local authorities being best placed to understand local priorities and allocate funding accordingly.
The Government is committed to implementing the rights of way reforms package which will reduce bureaucracy and speed up the process for new rights of way to be added to the legal record for everyone to enjoy. The reforms will streamline processes for recording rights of way with landowners, local authorities and users benefitting from a faster, less expensive, less confrontational and less bureaucratic process.
Local authorities will have powers to reject weakly evidenced applications, ignore irrelevant objections and agree appropriate modifications directly with landowners. Local authorities will have powers to correct obvious administrative errors on the definitive map via a significantly shortened process.
Asked by: Baroness Scott of Needham Market (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Benyon on 29 March (HL6810), whether they will provide additional funding for local highway authorities to address (1) the backlog of 4,000 applications for historic rights of way, and (2) the 41,000 miles of potentially unrecorded routes discovered by the Ramblers and its volunteers.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Lord Chamberlain (HM Household)
The final Local Government Finance Settlement for 2023/24 makes available up to £59.7 billion for local government in England, the majority of which is un-ringfenced in recognition of local authorities being best placed to understand local priorities and allocate funding accordingly.
The Government is committed to implementing the rights of way reforms package which will reduce bureaucracy and speed up the process for new rights of way to be added to the legal record for everyone to enjoy. The reforms will streamline processes for recording rights of way with landowners, local authorities and users benefitting from a faster, less expensive, less confrontational and less bureaucratic process.
Local authorities will have powers to reject weakly evidenced applications, ignore irrelevant objections and agree appropriate modifications directly with landowners. Local authorities will have powers to correct obvious administrative errors on the definitive map via a significantly shortened process.
Asked by: Baroness Scott of Needham Market (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will provide additional funding for local highway authorities to address (1) the backlog of 4,000 applications for historic rights of way, and (2) the 41,000 miles of potentially unrecorded routes discovered by the Ramblers and its volunteers.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Lord Chamberlain (HM Household)
Funding for local authorities is a matter for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
Asked by: Baroness Scott of Needham Market (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact on their commitment to ensure that everyone in England is 15 minutes' walk from green and blue spaces of their decision to re-impose a deadline for recording historic rights of way.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Lord Chamberlain (HM Household)
The Government is committed to ensuring that everyone in England can access green and blue spaces within a 15-minute walk as outlined in our Environmental Improvement Plan. The rights of way reforms package will reduce bureaucracy and speed up the process for new rights of way to be added to the legal record for everyone to enjoy.
Asked by: Baroness Scott of Needham Market (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have (1) to regulate, and (2) to supervise, farmers to ensure that no products from economically viable land, that would otherwise be used for food, are used as feedstocks for sustainable aviation fuels.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Lord Chamberlain (HM Household)
As set out in July, in the Government Response to the consultation "Mandating the use of sustainable aviation fuels in the UK", to count towards and be eligible for reward under any UK mandate for sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), SAF must not be produced from food or feed crops.
While growing crops for the biofuel sector offers farmers more routes to market for their harvest and flexibility in their crop rotations, consideration must also be given to land biodiversity or carbon-store value.
HM Government’s Food Strategy aims to broadly maintain the current level of food that we produce domestically and to boost production in sectors where there are the biggest opportunities. We announced in the Food Strategy the intention to publish a Land Use Framework for England in 2023, which will set out land-use change principles to ensure food production is balanced alongside climate, environment and infrastructure outcomes.