Written question asked by Jim McMahon (Labour) on Thursday, 20 November 2025, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 24 November 2025. It was answered by Mary Creagh (Labour) on Wednesday, 26 November 2025 on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Rights of Way: Databases

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment has been made of total length and number of ancient and historic rights of way not yet added to the national database; and what progress is expected to be made on recording them.

Answer: The Government intends to repeal the 2031 cut-off date for recording historic rights of way. The legislative change to repeal the cut-off date will be enacted when parliamentary time allows. This will ensure that historic routes are not extinguished simply because an authority has not processed them in time and will give councils greater flexibility to deal with applications. It will also help prevent unrecorded public rights of way from being lost as a result of delays or backlogs.

Secondary information