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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department plans to extend rights of responsible access to include more inland waters for recreational use.

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. This is why we have set out our ambitious manifesto commitments to create nine new national river walks and three new national forests in England, expanding access to the great outdoors. We are currently developing policy to improve access to nature, including onto unregulated inland waterways, working closely with key stakeholders to reduce barriers preventing people from accessing green and blue spaces.