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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 14 November 2024 to Question 13418 on Countryside: Access, by when he plans to make further announcements on his policy on access to nature.

Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Government recognises the importance of providing access to the outdoors for people’s health and wellbeing and is working to ensure that this access is safe and appropriate. We are committed to increasing access to nature and have already set out several ambitious manifesto commitments to expand opportunities for the public to enjoy the outdoors, including the creation of nine new national river walks and three new national forests in England.

We are currently developing policy to improve access to nature, working closely with other government departments and key stakeholders. In addition, we are already delivering key initiatives aimed at increasing access to green spaces and the countryside, including:

• Completing the King Charles III England Coast Path, which will become the longest waymarked and maintained coastal walking route in the world. With over 2,400 miles of the route now approved and 1,430 miles already open, this will also create 250,000 hectares of new open access land within the coastal margin.
• Designating Wainwright’s Coast to Coast route as a National Trail across the north of England.
• Delivering the £16 million ‘Access for All’ programme, which is designed to make our protected landscapes, national trails, forests, and the wider countryside more inclusive and accessible to all.

In addition, the Government has made the decision to repeal the cut-off date for the registration of historic rights of way, preventing the loss of hundreds of miles of unregistered paths. This will ensure that these paths remain available to the public for future generations. This change will be formally enacted when parliamentary time allows.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, which UK-based charities and organisations have lost funding as a result of reductions to the Overseas Development Assistance budget since 2024; and if he will make an assessment of the potential impact on the delivery of international aid programmes.

Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

This government remains fully committed to the UK playing a globally significant role on development; it is both in our national interest and in the interest of our partners across the globe.

Detailed decisions on how the Official Development Assistance (ODA) budget will be used will be worked through as part of the ongoing Spending Review based on various factors including impact assessments

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the Pathways to Work Green Paper proposals on people living with (a) Multiple Sclerosis and (b) other progressive neurological conditions; and what steps she plans to take to ensure that people with fluctuating or invisible disabilities do not lose access to Personal Independence Payment or other essential support.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The proposals outlined in our Green Paper, Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working aim to make the system fit to support people who need it now and in the future. Some information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper was published alongside the Spring Statement and can be found at this link: Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper - GOV.UK. More information on the impacts will be published in due course, a further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.

With regards to the changes to the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) eligibility criteria, it is important to note that the PIP assessment considers the needs arising from a long-term health condition or disability, not the health condition or disability itself. Therefore, the impact of the PIP changes will depend on an individual’s circumstances.

There will be no immediate changes to PIP eligibility. Our intention is that the changes will apply to new claims and award reviews from November 2026, subject to parliamentary approval. For those already on PIP, the changes will only apply at their next award review. The average award review is about three years. When people are reassessed, they will be reviewed by a trained assessor or healthcare professional and assessed on their individual needs and circumstances.

We are consulting on how best to support those who are no longer eligible for PIP and linked entitlements, including how to make sure health and eligible care needs are met.

In the Green Paper, we also announced that we are looking at recording assessments as standard to build greater trust in the system. The aim is to create greater transparency, using recordings as a learning opportunity to consider potential improvements to the quality of the assessment process, including improving our assessment of fluctuating conditions.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to increase access to accredited online schools for pupils with (a) special educational needs and (b) mental health conditions who are unable to attend mainstream education.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

I refer the hon. Member for South Cotswolds to the answer of 9 April 2025 to Question 43288.

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 bring forward legislative proposals to improve (a) public access, (b) environmental protections and (c) biodiversity enhancement for (i) rivers, (ii) lakes and (iii) other inland waterways.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The government recognises the importance of providing access to the outdoors including blue spaces for people’s health and wellbeing and is working to ensure this is safe and appropriate. We are currently developing policy working closely with key stakeholders to improve access to nature, in line with our ambitious manifesto commitments to create nine new national river walks and three new national forests in England. This includes access onto unregulated inland waterways, taking account of environmental protection and biodiversity enhancement.

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Found: _NC56 Jess Brown-Fuller Gideon Amos Olly Glover Edward Morello Dr Al Pinkerton Dr Roz Savage Charlotte