Select committee: Environmental Audit Committee
Recommendation 9
5th Report - Airport expansion and climate and nature targets
Published 24 Oct 2025
Environmental Audit Committee Airport expansion and climate and nature targets All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The Government, when updating the Airports National Policy Statement, should impose air quality limits for areas surrounding airports covering all key air quality pollutants such as nitrogen oxides and particulate matter. Having established those limits, government should require that any airport expansion is accompanied by measures to ensure no consequential net increase in air pollution including mitigating against the impact of road traffic growth surrounding airports. In response to this report, the Government must set out what measures it will put in place, including the level of pollution it deems acceptable, and how it will ensure they are met. (Recommendation, Paragraph 50)
From: Environmental Audit Committee, 5th Report - Airport expansion and climate and nature targets (HC 831), 24 October 2025
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 12 January 2026 (deadline 24 December 2025).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government's response largely points to its ongoing review of the Airports National Policy Statement (ANPS), with any proposed amendments to be consulted on in summer 2026, while setting out its existing carbon pricing and sustainable aviation fuel measures.
- On economic analysis, the Department for Transport (DfT) will develop updated analysis of the economic impacts of Heathrow expansion, with outputs published alongside any ANPS amendments for consultation "by summer 2026".
- On air quality and noise, the Government says mitigations "will be determined as part of the review process", with any amendments to the existing ANPS subject to consultation in summer 2026.
- On including international aviation emissions in carbon budgets, the Government says that, "subject to the allowances of parliamentary time", it "intends to lay the relevant legislation by summer 2026".
- On the Committee's request for a six-month contrail consultation and accounting for non-CO2 effects, the Government points to significant uncertainty about non-CO2 impacts and its research programme, with contrail findings to be published "in due course".