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Select committee inquiry

Air quality: a follow up report

Closed

Environmental Audit Committee · Opened 11 May 2011 · Closed 1 April 2012

8 recommendations · 3 conclusions
Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗

What the inquiry looked at

“The Environmental Audit Committee has published its follow up report on Air Quality. The inquiry assessed progress since the Committee’s previous report in March 2010, in particular assessing whether the Government is developing an effective strategy for meeting its obligations under the EU Air Quality Directives for particulate matter (PM10) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2). Further information on the Air Quality: follow up inquiry including Report, Response and details of evidence”

The committee's words, from the inquiry page on parliament.uk ↗.

What it found

In the committee's words, from the summary of 9th Report - Air Quality: a follow-up - Volume I (Volume I: Report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence) ↗

In 2010 our predecessor Environmental Audit Committee reported on Air Quality. It found that poor air quality is shortening the life expectancy of people in the UK by an average of seven to eight months and is costing society up to £20 billion per year. It called for an urgent step change in policy to reduce pollution from transport.

Over the past year the evidence of the damage caused by air pollution has grown stronger.

But the UK is still failing to meet European targets for safe air pollution limits across many parts of the country. The step change called for has not happened.

The Government has failed to get to grips with this issue. Most of the measures set out in its response to our predecessors’ report are yet to be brought in. Forty out of the UK’s 43 assessment zones are failing to meet EU targets and poor air quality is now found to be shortening the lives of up to 200,000 people by an average of 2 years. The Government must not continue to put the health of the nation at risk. It needs to:

• Prioritise action across central Government by putting improving air quality in the Defra Business Plan, and set up a Cabinet Office lead Ministerial Group to oversee delivery of a new cross government air quality strategy; • Engage with local authority leaders clearly to set out the risks of failing to act to improve air quality, and join up thinking across local authority departments so they all contribute to solving this problem; • Establish a national framework of low emissions zones to help local authorities reduce pollution from traffic; • Ensure that thinking on air quality is central to public health reforms that will transfer public health functions to local authorities; • Launch a public awareness campaign to drive air quality up the political agenda and inform people about the positive action they could take to reduce emissions and their exposure to these.

Four thousand people died as a result of the Great Smog of London in 1952 and this led to the introduction of the Clean Air Act in 1956. In 2008, 4,000 people died in London from air pollution and 30,000 died across the whole of the UK.

What the government said

9th Report - Air Quality: a follow-up - Volume II (Volume II: additional written evidence)

No government response is linked to this report.

Read the report ↗ Report an error

9th Report - Air Quality: a follow-up - Volume I (Volume I: Report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence)

The government responded on 5 July 2013.

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response.

The government agrees about the importance of further air quality improvements but does not accept the Committee's view that it "has failed to get to grips with the issue of air pollution".

  • On NO2 limit values, it does not agree with the implication that invoking the Directive's extension provisions is unacceptable, since the procedure is "explicitly laid down in the Directive".
  • On a Cabinet Office lead for cross-government action, it is "not convinced", saying this "would only lead to additional layers of bureaucracy" given existing coordination between departments.
  • On a national framework for low emission zones, it "is investigating the feasibility and effectiveness" of a framework and a retrofit certification scheme. Defra and DfT "will continue this work in 2012".
  • On Defra's business plan, it will "give further consideration" to including air quality as part of the review of the plan during 2012.

Read the government's response ↗ Read the report ↗ Report an error

How the inquiry ran

Each dot is a dated item listed on this page, from the inquiry's opening on 11 May 2011 to 5 July 2013.

  1. Report 2 reports
  2. Government response 5 Jul 2013

What it recommended 8 recommendations · 3 conclusions

1There is still much to be done to resolve the situation in London.

9th Report - Air Quality: a follow-up - Volume I (Volume I: Report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence)

Concluded (the committee's words)
There is still much to be done to resolve the situation in London. The Olympics Delivery Authority has made a commitment to holding the greenest Olympics ever, but we note that it is proving difficult to for the Mayor to make the required policy trade-offs and achieve acceptable levels of air quality. We welcome Defra’s consultation to invite views on the short-term measures that have been adopted in London, but the fact that these measure have had to be used clearly indicates that air quality is not being addressed in the long-term. Further measures must address the causes of air pollution and must be more credible than spraying the roads with adhesive.
2We can see no circumstances in which a delay in achieving [EU limit value] targets...

9th Report - Air Quality: a follow-up - Volume I (Volume I: Report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence)

Recommended (the committee's words)
We can see no circumstances in which a delay in achieving [EU limit value] targets or a lessening of these targets would be acceptable. Any delay or lessening would simply put more lives a risk. We see a case for arguing that fines would not be appropriate if the means for delivering them is not available, but this case has not yet been adequately made. The Government must set out how it intends to achieve EU targets. It must say, in its response to this report, whether or not it intends to push for less stringent targets when air quality legislation is reviewed in 2013. Its apparent tactic of avoiding EU fines by applying for extensions to limit value targets, with an expectation that target values will be diluted in the near future, is putting the health of UK residents at risk.
3Applications for compliance extensions which lack sufficient policy measures to back them up could result...

9th Report - Air Quality: a follow-up - Volume I (Volume I: Report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence)

Recommended (the committee's words)
Applications for compliance extensions which lack sufficient policy measures to back them up could result in unlimited fines from the European Commission. The Government must now embark on a strategy that aims to achieve air quality targets.
4In the event of a third runway being developed at Heathrow, compliance with NO2 limits...

9th Report - Air Quality: a follow-up - Volume I (Volume I: Report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence)

Concluded (the committee's words)
In the event of a third runway being developed at Heathrow, compliance with NO2 limits would be impossible. ..... However, for the Government to make the case that compliance with EU air quality limits throughout Greater London will be maintained beyond 2015, their application for an extension to meet EU limit values, the forthcoming Sustainable Framework for UK Aviation and the forthcoming Aviation National Policy Statement must contain an explicit prohibition of a third runway at Heathrow.
5Defra must include progress towards achieving EU air quality targets for particulate matter and nitrogen...

9th Report - Air Quality: a follow-up - Volume I (Volume I: Report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence)

Concluded (the committee's words)
Defra must include progress towards achieving EU air quality targets for particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide in its business plan at the next update. If these targets are not included, we expect the Minster for Government Policy to report on why this is the case and what discussions he has had with Defra on this during his review of their business plan.
6The Government should produce an action plan setting out how air quality is to be...

9th Report - Air Quality: a follow-up - Volume I (Volume I: Report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence)

Recommended (the committee's words)
The Government should produce an action plan setting out how air quality is to be considered in policy development across Government, to encourage co-benefits with other policies, to discourage policy conflicts and to assess the impacts of consolidating air quality regulations. It should establish a ministerial group to oversee and ensure adherence to the action plan. The Cabinet Office, because of its role in directing policy across departments, should take the lead in implementing this.
7The Government must engage with local authority leaders to set out clearly the risks of...

9th Report - Air Quality: a follow-up - Volume I (Volume I: Report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence)

Recommended (the committee's words)
The Government must engage with local authority leaders to set out clearly the risks of failing to act on improving air quality. It must help local authorities to join up thinking across their departments to help identify where conflicts arise and where improvements can be made. This needs to be done in a way that influences decisions taken by local enterprise partnerships and planning authorities and takes account of new public health reforms. Government engagement with local authorities also needs to address establishing a national framework for low emissions zones and a public awareness campaign.
8A blanket approach of transferring EU fines to those local authorities failing to meet air...

9th Report - Air Quality: a follow-up - Volume I (Volume I: Report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence)

Recommended (the committee's words)
A blanket approach of transferring EU fines to those local authorities failing to meet air quality targets would be unfair. The causes of poor air quality are often beyond an individual authority’s control. ..... Transferring EU fines to local authorities might help to deliver air quality improvements but, if it pursues this, the Government must establish a mechanism where it only passes on a share of fines proportionate to a local authority’s ability to influence local air quality. Many of the causes of poor air quality arise from policies for which central Government is responsible. Otherwise, the process is likely to result in lengthy and costly legal battles, and risks being seen simply as cutting local government financial support. Before it does this, the Government needs to assess the resource requirements of individual local authorities, depending on their circumstances, to be able to deal efficiently with the air quality challenge at a time of squeezed budgets.
9The Government must take full advantage of public health reforms to improve local authorities’ abilities...

9th Report - Air Quality: a follow-up - Volume I (Volume I: Report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence)

Recommended (the committee's words)
The Government must take full advantage of public health reforms to improve local authorities’ abilities to improve air quality. In particular the Government should introduce indicators to measure public health improvements from better air quality in its public health reforms.
10As a matter of urgency, the Government must set up a national framework for low...

9th Report - Air Quality: a follow-up - Volume I (Volume I: Report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence)

Recommended (the committee's words)
As a matter of urgency, the Government must set up a national framework for low emission zones to establish a recognised standard for emissions and vehicle identification, supported by a national certification scheme of retrofit technologies.
11The costs to society from poor air quality are on a par with those from...

9th Report - Air Quality: a follow-up - Volume I (Volume I: Report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence)

Recommended (the committee's words)
The costs to society from poor air quality are on a par with those from smoking and obesity. A public awareness campaign would be the single most important tool in improving air quality. It should be used to inform people about the positive action they could take to reduce emissions and their exposure. It should also be used to provide an impetus for action in local authorities to deliver more joined up thinking on achieving air quality targets. The Government should provide Defra with the means to launch such a campaign. This could be done in collaboration with existing campaigning groups, to ensure maximum cost effectiveness and coverage.