asked Her Majesty's Government:

In the light of the National Audit Office report on The Right of Access to Open Countryside, what was the issue relating to data quality cited by the Countryside Agency which led to problems with the accuracy of the maps for the south-east; what were the causes of this development; what steps have been taken to ensure that there will be no recurrence; and whether any penalties have been applied to those responsible.[HL6481]

The Countryside Agency withdrew and re-issued the provisional map for the south-east because it discovered the initial map contained a number of errors. The agency attributed the errors in part to technical drafting issues, caused by the mapping tool used by the agency's mapping contractor, and in part to inadequate checking by the contractor of the changes made between the draft and provisional maps following the public consultation period.

As a result the agency put in place measures to ensure more rigorous checking of the maps and also switched to a more advanced mapping tool. Appropriate penalties were applied to the mapping contractor.