Written question asked by Lord Inglewood (Crossbench) on Tuesday, 27 January 2026, in the House of Lords. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 10 February 2026. It was answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour) on Thursday, 5 February 2026 on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Common Land: Registration

Question: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the amount of land registered as common land which was incorrectly registered.

Answer: The Government has not made a formal assessment of the total amount of land incorrectly registered as common land. However, the Commons Act 2006 acknowledges that registration errors occurred under the Commons Registration Act 1965, including wrongly drawn boundaries, buildings mistakenly included, and land that did not meet the legal definition of common land. Schedule 2 of the Commons Act 2006 provides mechanisms to correct registration errors, but implementation is limited to specific areas with varying deadlines - applications closed in pioneer areas in December 2020, while deregistration applications in other English areas must be made by 15 March 2027.

Secondary information