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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans he has to introduce payments to landowners for the purposes of increasing access to the countryside; and what plans he has to introduce those payments as part of the Environmental Land Management schemes set out in the Agriculture Act 2020.

Support for increasing access into the countryside will be made through existing schemes and support mechanisms already in place. We are still considering our approach of how support for increasing and maintaining access to the countryside in our future schemes including our environmental land management schemes.