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<p>Natural England recently updated the Countryside Code, following significant stakeholder
engagement. It comprises a version aimed at visitors to the countryside (updated in
April 2021) and a version aimed at land managers with public access on their land
(launched in 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.</p><p> </p><p>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, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/the-people-and-nature-survey-for-england-monthly-indicators-for-december-2021-official-statistics"
target="_blank">'PANS Monthly Countryside Code data for December 2021'</a>). A detailed
analysis of this data will be carried out at the end of a full year’s data collection,
during 2022/23.</p><p> </p><p>In addition, Natural England recently delivered two
small-scale stakeholder surveys focused on the Countryside Code:</p><ul><li>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 the extent to which 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, <a href="http://publications.naturalengland.org.uk/publication/6527410754551808"
target="_blank">NERR095 2021 ‘The Countryside Code: Stakeholder Survey. A summary
of findings’</a>). These results informed work to update the Countryside Code.</li><li>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.</li></ul><p> </p><p>Natural England
will use the results from these surveys 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.</p><p> </p><p>Natural England
has also delivered internal evaluations of the impact of communication campaigns launched
to promote the updated versions of the Countryside Code.</p><p> </p><p>Natural England
will commission a more complete evaluation of the effectiveness of the Countryside
Code, and recent initiatives to promote it, during 2022/23.</p>
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