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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government (1) by how much funding to UK National Parks has been cut since 2010, (2) what is the future impact of decreased budgets on National Parks, and what assessments have been made of this, and (3) whether funding in 2020 will equal or exceed 2010 levels.

Between 2010 and 2015 the national parks saw a reduction in budget of 8.9%, considerably lower than the overall reductions in budgets across Defra. We are committed to helping national park authorities thrive, which is why we have protected their budgets during the current spending review to 2020. We have committed over £350 million for English national parks, areas of outstanding natural beauty and public forests. This reflects the value we see in these protected landscapes and the strong support they receive from Defra.

The current Spending Review runs until 2019/20 so we are unable to confirm what funding will be allocated to national parks beyond 2020. Nor has Government made any assessment of any future impact on decreased budgets - this will be for the national park authorities to make themselves. It will be for the next Government to decide what funding should go to national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty for 2020/21 onwards.