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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the report entitled Stepping Forward - The Stakeholder Working Group on Unrecorded Public Rights of Way: Report to Natural England, published in March 2010, what progress her Department has made on developing a rights of way reform package.

The Secretary of State is keen to ensure that rights of way policy is delivering for users, landowners and local authorities. The 2026 cut-off date is currently under review and we will provide a further update shortly.

The Government is committed to implementing the rights of way reform measures which will streamline processes for recording rights of way with landowners, local authorities and users benefitting from a faster, more cost effective, less confrontational and less bureaucratic process. We will also introduce the right to apply regulations which will give landowners a statutory right to apply to have rights of way diverted or extinguished in certain circumstances, such as where paths pass through hazardous farmyards.