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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what recent assessment they have made of the effectiveness of the Countryside Code.

Natural England recently updated the Countryside Code, following significant stakeholder engagement. It comprises a version aimed at visitors to the countryside (updated April 2021) and a version aimed at land managers with public access on their land (launched February 2022). Monitoring and evaluating the impact and effectiveness of the updated Countryside Code has been, and will continue to be, undertaken in several ways.

Natural England has included two questions relating to the Countryside Code in the People and Nature Survey for England since April 2021. This online panel survey, which has Official Statistics status, gathers evidence and trend data through relating to people’s enjoyment, access, understanding of and attitudes to the natural environment, and its contributions to wellbeing. One of these questions collects data on participants’ reported behaviours when visiting the countryside, corresponding to the behaviours included in the Countryside Code. The other question collects data on the extent to which participants have heard of the Countryside Code and follow it. Data is currently available for the period April to December 2021, which includes responses from a nationally representative sample of 18,747 adults in England (see attachment, 'PANS Monthly Countryside Code data for December 2021' (www.gov.uk/government/statistics/the-people-and-nature-survey-for-england-monthly-indicators-for-december-2021-official-statistics)). A detailed analysis of this data will be carried out at the end of a full year’s data collection, during 2022/23.

In addition, Natural England recently delivered two small-scale stakeholder surveys focused on the Countryside Code:

• In an online survey of 3,801 stakeholders carried out in winter 2020/21, participants shared their opinions about the effectiveness of the Countryside Code, current levels of public awareness about it and official efforts to improve this. They also provided information about their personal level of engagement and familiarity with the Countryside Code, including to which extent they have used and promoted it. The results of this survey, in addition to Natural England’s response to the headline findings, have been published (see attachment, NERR095 2021 ‘The Countryside Code: Stakeholder Survey. A summary of findings’ (//publications.naturalengland.org.uk/publication/6527410754551808)). These results informed work to update the Countryside Code.
• Natural England delivered another online survey in autumn 2021, aimed at land managers, which received 613 responses. This survey collected data on the opinions and awareness of land managers in relation to the Countryside Code, in addition to direct experiences of undesirable visitor behaviours on the land they manage and self-reported behaviours relevant to managing public access on their land in line with the Countryside Code. The results will be published in spring 2022.

Natural England will use these survey results as a baseline and will run further stakeholder surveys on an annual basis to track change in awareness and utilisation of the Countryside Code, and the impact of the Code on reported behaviours.

Natural England has also delivered internal evaluations of the impact of communication campaigns launched to promote the updated versions of the Countryside Code.

Natural England will commission a more complete evaluation of the effectiveness of the Countryside Code, and recent promotional initiatives, during 2022/23.