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

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to retain the public access offer within Environmental Land Management schemes so that more people can benefit from improved access to the countryside.

Presently Countryside Stewardship scheme supports land managers to offer educational access visits to school age children and care farming groups and also offers a supplement to support access to woodlands. In protected landscapes, the Farming in a Protected Landscape programme offers permissive access.

We are fully committed to the Environmental Land Management schemes. The government will optimise Environmental Land Management schemes over time, so they produce the right outcomes for all farmers - such as small, grassland, upland and tenanted farms - while delivering food security and nature recovery in a just and equitable way. This will also consider improved access to the countryside.