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Deregulation Act and "rights of way reform package"

The Deregulation Act 2015, which includes various rights of way provisions affecting England (sections 20 to 26 and Schedule 7), can be viewed, and downloaded, here.

The Government's original expectation was that the rights of way provisions in the Bill, together with other changes as part of its so-called "rights of way reform package", would be implemented in April 2016. However this never happened, and implementation now appears to have been put on hold with Defra's priorities being trying to deal with the implications of Brexit. Meanwhile the 'cut-off date' of 1 January 2026 draws ever nearer.

Analysis and commentary by John Trevelyan on the government's "rights of way reform package", of which the changes being made by the Act form part, is available to download here. A complementary document showing the legislation as it will be once the package is implemented is available to download here. These two documents have been revised (in late March 2015) from previous versions to reflect the Bill becoming an Act. The latter document was corrected in January 2019 to remedy the earlier omission of section 118C of the Highways Act 1980.