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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact on the rate of (1) erosion, and (2) widening, of footpaths in upland, coastal and other popular areas due to any increased usage during the COVID-19 pandemic; and what plans they have to provide extra funding to national parks and other relevant authorities for any resulting extra costs for the repair and maintenance of such footpaths.

The maintenance of public rights of way is a local issue and local authorities are required to keep a Rights of Way Improvement Plan (ROWIP) to plan improvements to the existing rights of way network in their area.

Local authorities receive most of their rights of way funding from central Government through the Revenue Support Grant (RSG) to deliver various duties, including ROWIPs. It is not ring-fenced, and we cannot say how much of the RSG authorities should spend on ROWIPs. It is up to local authorities to manage their own budgets and decide how much they should spend on their different duties and for local people to hold them to account.