Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the areas in the (a) England and (b) Liverpool where air pollution has been increasing; and what steps are being taken by central Government to reverse that process.

Assessment of air pollution concentration changes across the UK is reported annually in "Air Pollution in the UK" and the latest report covering 2020 can be found here: Annual Report 2020 Issue 1 Online Viewer - Defra, UK.

Assessment of changing emissions across the UK is also reported annually and the latest report covering 2020 can be found here: Emissions of air pollutants in the UK - Summary - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Local assessment is carried out by Liverpool council as part of its statutory Local Air Quality Management function.

NOx concentrations recorded by two Automatic Urban Rural Monitoring sites in Liverpool have been on a downward trend, though we recognise there is more to be done. That is why the Government has taken a range of steps to tackle air pollution, including:

· Publishing the Clean Air Strategy (2019) which focuses on the actions we will take to reduce emissions of the five most damaging air pollutants: ammonia, fine particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide, non-methane volatile organic compounds.

· Setting two new targets for fine particulate matter (PM2.5) under the Environment Act 2021. Our dual-target approach will tackle the highest concentrations and ensure continuous improvement across the country.

· Continuing to take action to protect people from pollutants released from domestic burning by bringing forward regulations to ensure people use cleaner fuels and solid fuel stoves.

· Working to provide a coherent regulatory framework for the setting, updating, and enforcing of standards for air quality emissions from the full range of industry sectors. This includes the development of the UK 'best available techniques' (BAT) framework, which will enable regulators and industry to work together to identify and apply up to date, challenging standards.

· Publishing our 2017 UK Plan for tackling nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) concentrations and its 2018 supplement, which set out our approach to bringing NO₂ air pollution to within statutory limits. This includes placing requirements on a number of local authorities, including Liverpool City Council, to develop local air quality plans. This is supported by £880 million dedicated funding to help local authorities develop and implement their plans, and to support those impacted by these plans. This Government is also taking action across transport by supporting the switch to electric vehicles with over £3 billion of investment, and £2 billion in funding for cycling and walking over this Parliament.

We continue to make significant investment in transport in the Liverpool City Region, including a £710 million City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement over 5 years to transform local transport networks, alongside £37.52 million from the Levelling Up Fund to improve local transport, including high quality segregated walking and cycling routes.