To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what was his Department's response to the Countryside Commission's consultation papers, "Paths, Routes and Trails" and "Changing the Rights of Way Network".

The Department has not commented on either paper.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how his Department measures the reduction in the time taken to decide opposed rights of way orders in the absence of information on the receipt of, and replies to, letters by his Department's offices in Bristol; and if he will publish such information as is available to indicate how substantial the reduction is.

The time between the submission of an order to the Department's Bristol office and the issue of a decision is recorded for every case. The median from submission to decision in 1987–88 was 53 weeks; in 1988–89 this time was reduced to 40 weeks.