Vehicle Excise Duty: Carbon Dioxide Emissions

Lord Tunnicliffe Excerpts

Monday 29th June 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ashton of Hyde]

The noble Baroness’s interest in this subject is well known and I agree with her that there are many things that could be done. However, it is about more than just vehicle excise duty—55% of nitrous dioxide emissions come from sources other than transport. However, I take the point about the Supreme Court judgment. We are committed to working towards full compliance with that and are reviewing the UK air quality plans, which will be finalised by the end of 2015. Consultations will take place before that.

[Lord Tunnicliffe (Lab)]

My Lords, Defra, in its policy paper dated 8 May 2015, states:

“Air pollution, for example from road transport, harms our health and wellbeing. It is estimated to have an effect equivalent to 29,000 deaths each year and is expected to reduce the life expectancy of everyone in the UK by 6 months on average, at a cost of around £16 billion per year”.

Does the Minister stand by that statement and does he agree that all future government modelling of the economic impact of changes to vehicle excise duty must consider these very significant costs?

[Lord Ashton of Hyde]

The noble Lord makes an important point. I agree with what Defra said; that is why the Government are investing more than £500 million between 2015 and 2020 to support the uptake of ultra-low-emission vehicles, with the aim of all new cars having no tail-pipe emissions by 2040.