Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he plans to publish the Air Quality Expert Group review of air pollution during the covid-19 lockdown period.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Air Quality Expert Group Report entitled "Estimation of changes in air pollution emissions, concentrations and exposure during the COVID-19 outbreak in the UK" was published on 1 July and is available on Defra’s UK-Air website: https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/library/reports.php?report_id=1005.
Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he plans to publish the Government's analysis of the action required to bring UK air pollution within the limits specified by the World Health Organisation.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The Government is in the process of preparing a report examining what action would be needed to bring concentrations of PM2.5 below the World Health Organization’s 10 μg/m3 annual mean guideline level across England. We plan to publish the report early this year.
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Edinburgh West on 14 February 2019 to PQ 219552 for further details.
Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department operates a ban the box employment policy in respect of ex-offender job applicants with unspent convictions; and how many employees of her Department have unspent convictions.
Answered by George Eustice
Defra is committed to offering job applicants who are ex-offenders equal and fair opportunities. This commitment is supported through membership and operation of the Business in the Community ‘Ban the Box’ scheme. Following the principles in this scheme, appropriate pre-appointment checks, including a basic criminal record check, are not made until later in the recruitment process.
However, Defra does not retain details centrally that would allow us to identify employees with unspent convictions so the information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, for what reason local authorities have no direct responsibility to control PM2.5 concentrations; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
Local authorities do have a role to play in tackling fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and this was introduced through statutory guidance published last April. It requires local authorities to work towards reducing emissions and concentrations of PM2.5 in their local area alongside measures to tackle other pollutants.
Local authorities do have powers available to them to help tackle key sources of PM such as those to establish Smoke Control Areas and on transport.
The Public Health Outcomes Framework also includes an indicator based on PM2.5 impacts on mortality. This was introduced to support local authority public health professionals and air quality managers to appraise PM2.5 levels in their area.