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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Gardiner on 2014-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many monitoring stations were in place and returning air quality data for NO2, PM2.5 and PM10 in (a) 2010, (b) 2011, (c) 2012, (d) 2013 and (e) 2014.

Dan Rogerson

Defra operates an extensive monitoring network in order to assess air quality in the UK. The number of sites may vary year to year as sites are upgraded or replaced. A summary of the number of monitoring stations for each pollutant by year is provided below.

Year	NO2	PM2.5	PM10
2010	117	78	68
2011	118	78	68
2012	121	80	69
2013	118	83	72
2014	115	80	70

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Gardiner on 2014-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Government has adopted a formal position on the EU air package; and if he will make a statement.

Dan Rogerson

The Government welcomes the European Commission’s Clean Air Package which was published on 18 December last year. The Commission has recently published several reports updating its impact assessment for the package, and we are in the process of analysing the proposals. The Government is committed to working with the Commission, the European Parliament and other Member States to ensure the package is proportionate, deliverable and achievable.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Gardiner on 2014-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which air quality monitoring stations went off-line in each year since 2010-11; and on what dates they were off-line.

Dan Rogerson

Defra operates an extensive monitoring network of nearly 300 sites in order to assess air quality in the UK and report to the EU for compliance. Many of these sites have multiple instruments measuring different pollutants.

The Automatic and Urban Network has 130 sites that provide information on five key pollutants on an hourly basis. Information from this network is updated hourly on the UK Air website to provide the most recent data to the public.

An extensive Programme of maintenance, auditing and site inspections is required to maintain the networks operation. EU directives state that instruments must be operational for a minimum period of time for data to be reported and these requirements are met in our annual compliance reporting.

It is therefore not possible to provide information on the specific times when instruments were not operational during the last four years, but I refer the hon. Member for Brent North to the UK’s annual compliance report for statistics regarding data capture at each site, at:

http://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/library/annualreport/index

“

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Gardiner on 2014-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, on what date the Government plans to send and publish its reply to the European Commission letter of formal notice of persistent air pollution problems sent on 20 February 2014.

Dan Rogerson

The deadline for a response to the European Commission is 21 April. Correspondence between the Commission and Member States in infringement proceedings is confidential. We do not, therefore, intend to publish the UK’s response.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Gardiner on 2014-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when the Government will publish a second consultation on local air quality management.

Dan Rogerson

We expect to publish a second consultation on regulatory and guidance changes to the Local Air Quality Management system (in England) towards the end of this year. As stated in our Summary of Responses published last December, we intend to explore all alternatives put forward by respondents, drawing on core conclusions from the review and working in partnership with key stakeholders. This will ensure that a robust and sustainable package is put forward as part of the next consultation.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Gardiner on 2014-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when the Government response to the Environmental Audit Committee’s Eleventh Report, on Plastic Bags, HC 861 will be completed and sent to the Committee.

Dan Rogerson

The Government is considering the Committee’s recommendations and will respond as soon as details have been finalised.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Gardiner on 2014-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, by what date each of the 40 air quality zones with exceedances of nitrogen dioxide limit values in 2010 will achieve compliance with 2010 nitrogen dioxide limit values.

Dan Rogerson

Meeting EU standards for nitrogen dioxide remains a challenge for many large urban areas in the UK and across Europe. In 2011 Defra submitted estimates of the year each part of the UK would meet these standards to the European Commission. The assumptions behind our projections are regularly reviewed to reflect new understanding and we expect to have new projections available later this year.