Draft Air Quality (Designation of Relevant Public Authorities) (England) Regulations 2022

Debate between Rebecca Pow and James Duddridge

Thursday 24th November 2022 General Committees

[Rebecca Pow]

The whole point of the SI is to make a difference. In all honesty, it was frustrating that although National Highways has been working with local authorities in many cases, there has been no consistency to that. The regulations will enable that more consistent approach because National Highways must be brought into discissions about the air quality action plans with which each local authority is tasked, if there is a problem with the air in their area. That will make a big difference. In my time as Minister, consistency has been constantly raised with me as a tricky issue, and I am certain that the regulations will definitely make a difference.

National Highways will determine the actions it takes, which will also have to be consistent with its responsibilities under the road investment strategy. Bearing in mind that National Highways is responsible for 4,300 motorways and A roads, a significant network of roads will now be included in considerations relating to pollution. Practical actions that National Highways could undertake include speed restrictions, which can help reduce pollution, and improvements to road infrastructure or signage to improve traffic flow.

[Sir James Duddridge (Rochford and Southend East) (Con)]

I had not intended to make a contribution, but with Mrs Latham in the Chair, I wanted to make a small impression. May I assure the Minister that National Highways works really well with some local authorities? The A127 has some specific problems with pollution around the Basildon area and National Highways has come together with the local authorities—it is quite complicated because there are two unitary authorities, including a county council—and we are working to try to get the A127 retrunked so it will be part of National Highways. Despite not having responsibility for the A127 now, National Highways is already engaging in those local environmental issues.

[Rebecca Pow]

I thank my hon. Friend for making that point because, as I said, in many cases National Highways is working with local authorities, but there is no constituency to that, so I am very pleased to hear about that example. That is probably driven by local characters, potentially the Member of Parliament is behind it and getting heads together, which is so often part of solving a lot of such problems.

My hon. Friend gave a good example of somewhere where neighbouring authorities are involved. Given the various different structures of local authorities, we have clarified duties on upper-tier authorities in order to create a more collaborative framework so that all authorities with responsibility for our roads co-operate to address the serious issue of pollution.

Over the summer, we provided newly published guidance to local authorities on how they should work with air quality partners. We will also be providing further statutory guidance to support that collaborative working between the local authorities and National Highways specifically. In line with the published guidance, there is no need to conduct an impact assessment for the SI because no, or no significant, impact on the private or voluntary sector is foreseen, as it is limited to requiring action from National Highways. The territorial extent of the regulations is England only, as air quality is a devolved matter.

I hope that hon. Members, including the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Cambridge, will agree that the regulations provide a really important strengthening of the local air quality management framework by enabling local action on air pollution that will help reduce the negative impact on health that is faced by so many of our communities, especially those living near roads. As I said, with air pollution being the single biggest threat to human health, this is clearly a really important step. As the Minister who was involved in the Environment Act 2021, I am really pleased that we are actually forging ahead and introducing this measure, which I commend to the Committee.