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 make an assessment of the potential impact of implementing a national beach accessibility framework on (a) public health and (b) the economy; and if he will consider providing funding to improve access to beaches in (i) Torbay and (ii) other deprived coastal areas.

The Government recognises the importance of providing access to the outdoors 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.

The Government is also already delivering several policies to increase access to nature including in coastal areas, where we are:

Working to complete the King Charles III England Coast Path which, at around 2,700 miles, will be the longest waymarked and maintained coastal walking route in the world. Over 2,000 miles have now been approved as King Charles III England Coast Path, with over 1,000 miles already open. It will also create 250,000 hectares of new open access land within the coastal margin