Countryside Code Stakeholder Survey 2025

Overview

We, at Natural England and Natural Resources Wales, have a joint statutory duty to issue the Countryside Code to guide people visiting the countryside in England and Wales. We also have a duty to advise landowners and managers in relation to access on their land.

We would like to invite you to complete this online survey about the Countryside Code (often referred to as 'the Code' in this survey). Your responses will be used to inform future Countryside Code work in England and Wales.

The survey may take around 15 minutes to complete, but you don't have to answer every question if you are short of time. Your answers will be saved automatically as you go and you can return to the survey before the closing date if you need to take a break partway through.

This survey is focused on collecting the views of existing stakeholders, but also contains questions for potential new audiences who might not be as familiar with the Code. You are welcome to forward this survey to any of your contacts that you feel may be interested in sharing their views on the Code, especially if you think this could help us achieve our ambition of engaging with a wide range of potential audiences for the Code.

Your participation is completely voluntary and you are under no obligation to complete the survey. None of the questions are mandatory – if you do not wish to answer one, you are welcome to skip it and move on to the next question.

We set out how we use the personal information you share with us through Citizen Space in a general privacy notice. Additionally, for this survey, if you choose to provide your contact details:

• We will only use these details for the purposes of communicating with you about the Countryside Code.
   
• These details are collected on the lawful basis of ‘public interest’ and will be stored securely on Natural Resources Wales’ Document Management System and Natural England's Records Hub. It will be kept for no longer than 5 years after the end of the survey and then destroyed.
   
• Only the Outdoor Access and Recreation Team at Natural Resources Wales and the People Landscape Access & Nature Group at Natural England will have access to this data.
   
• We set out further details of how we will use the personal information you will share with us in the privacy notice for this survey.

If, after completing the survey, you wish to withdraw your data, you are free to do so at any time up until the point at which the data is incorporated into the analysis. Please note that if you have not provided your contact details we will not be able to identify your responses and so will not be able to withdraw them. You can withdraw your data, and its inclusion in any final analysis, by contacting us at countryside.code@naturalengland.org.uk or enquiries@naturalresourceswales.gov.uk before 28 September.

Your responses will be anonymised and aggregated with those of other survey participants. They will then be analysed and the results of this analysis will be shared with stakeholders. If you have any questions, please contact the project team at countryside.code@naturalengland.org.uk or enquiries@naturalresourceswales.gov.uk

If you have any concerns about the research, please contact joseph.conran@cyfoethnaturiolcymru.gov.uk

For questions about the use of your personal data in Natural Resources Wales, contact the Data Protection Team dataprotection@naturalresourceswales.gov.uk

To lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office, call 0303 123 1113 or email icocasework@ico.org.uk 

Before you begin

By responding to any of the survey questions, we will assume that you have read, understood and considered the information shared here about what your participation will entail and how we will handle your data, including as set out in our privacy notice, and that you give your consent to take part in this survey on this basis.