Olympic Games 2012: London Air Quality

Monday 23rd May 2011 Lords Chamber

Question

14:37

Asked By

[Lord Berkeley]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to respond to the report of the Olympic Delivery Authority that air quality in London will exceed European Union limits during the 2012 Olympic Games.

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, the Government are committed to working towards the European Union’s air quality standards and have recently made an extra £5 million available to help the mayor tackle some of London's worst pollution hotspots. During the Olympic Games our ambition is that all spectators should travel to London venues by public transport, cycling or on foot. These and other measures will help minimise air quality risks in London during the Games.

[Lord Berkeley]

I am grateful to the Minister for that reply. Will he say who is responsible for keeping the air at the right quality? Is it TfL, the GLA or the Government? Secondly, if there is very little wind during the Olympic Games and PM10 values exceed the limit, is he aware that the Government could be fined £180 million by the International Olympic Committee? That is what will happen if the pollution is as bad as it was in Beijing. Does he have a contingency plan?

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, the answer to the noble Lord's first question is simple. Everyone is responsible: the Government, the mayor, TfL, LOCOG, the ODA and, most importantly, individuals who make their own transport decisions. As regards the noble Lord’s second question, the host city contract states that the International Olympic Committee can withhold payment from LOCOG if an event in the Olympic and Paralympic Games cannot take place for any reason or if there is non-compliance with the contract. Air quality in the UK is improving and it is very unlikely that air quality issues will result in payments being withheld.

[Baroness Kramer]

My Lords, I support the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, in raising this question. The Minister will be aware that London has already violated its entire annual allowance for PM10s for 2011 and we are in only the fifth month of the year. Will he give us some assurance that London will at least look at putting in place a temporary clean air zone around central London and the Olympic venues during the Olympics? If it does not, does he agree that we will end up doing what Beijing did, which was to resort to an almost impossible alternation between allowing in cars with odd-numbered plates one day and even-numbered plates the next in order to manage air quality problems?

[Earl Attlee]

My noble friend will be aware that the PM10 problem occurs only in a few hotspots. By and large, the PM10 problem is licked. She talked about temporary exclusion zones. That would be a matter for the mayor.

[Baroness Oppenheim-Barnes]

My Lords, does my noble friend agree that air quality is made a great deal worse than it would otherwise be by the traffic congestion caused by roadworks over practically every inch of London roads?

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, my noble friend makes an important point. Some of the congestion caused by roadworks has produced some traffic activity and therefore produced some pollution.

[Lord Hughes of Woodside]

Would the shorter and more accurate Answer to the Question asked by my noble friend Lord Berkeley be that no one is responsible?

[Earl Attlee]

No, my Lords. Everyone is responsible.

[Lord Brooke of Sutton Mandeville]

My Lords, what was the weather like in 1948 and, while we are at it, in 1908 as well?

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, I am not aware of the weather in those periods. All noble Lords know that legislation over the years has vastly improved the environment in which we live. We need only to think of the Clean Air Act and the benefits we got from it.

[Lord Stoddart of Swindon]

My Lords, I have seen reports that London or the Government are likely to be fined £300 million for pollution in London. If that is true, I hope it is not going to add to our already massive contribution to the EU budget this year and in subsequent years.

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, I obviously failed to explain properly to the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, that there is very little chance indeed of us being fined by the International Olympic Committee. We could be fined only if an event could not take place for any reason—for instance, if there was far too much pollution to run a marathon—or there was some non-compliance with the contract. Both those conditions are extremely unlikely to arise.

[Lord Davies of Coity]

My Lords, in answer to an earlier question the Minister said that we are all responsible. Is that not a case of the Government again passing the buck?

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, we are certainly not passing the buck. We have helped the mayor with a £5 million grant to deal with some of the technical issues; for instance, fitting particulate traps to London buses to deal with some the PM10 hotspots that I talked about earlier.

[Lord Pearson of Rannoch]

Can the Minister bring us up to date with the infraction proceedings against the city of Brussels which is, I think, the only major European city which still discharges all its raw sewage into its local river? Does the Minister agree that were the wind to be blowing in the south, this might have quite an effect on the Olympic Games?

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, I answer for the Department for Transport and for the whole of the Government but, fortunately, I have no responsibilities for the city of Brussels.

[Lord West of Spithead]

My Lords, I declare an interest as a waterman and lighterman. Will the Minister say whether we have a comprehensive plan for greater use of the river, bearing in mind that we have been very poor at using barges, as we are committed to doing, for the Olympic build programme?

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, I rather think that we have missed the boat on that because the infrastructure is largely built. However, when I visited the Port of London Authority I detected some of the work that the noble Lord had undertaken.