Kerry McCarthy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2016-03-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to her Department’s Single departmental plan: 2015 to 2020, published in February 2016, what changes are expected in exposure to (a) nitrogen dioxide and (b) PM2.5 by 2017.

Rory Stewart

In December last year Defra published new plans setting out how the UK Government intends to improve air quality and meet the requirements of the ambient air quality Directive for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) in the shortest possible time. Our ambition, as set out in the plans, is for the UK to have some of the very best air quality in the world. Improving air quality in our towns and cities will reduce exposure for a large number of people and have a positive impact in reducing adverse health effects.

For all UK zones we assess compliance annually for a range of pollutants covered by European air quality directives, including PM2.5 and nitrogen dioxide. All limit values, other than those for NO2, are currently met. The results are published in the annual Air Pollution in the UK compliance reports, which are made available on the UK-Air website: http://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/library/annualreport/

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