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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether any funding has been allocated from the public purse to support Sheffield Council in establishing its air quality plans.

Sheffield City Council has been identified in the UK plan for tackling roadside nitrogen dioxide concentrations as a local authority with concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) projected to be persistently in exceedance of the legal limit. It is required to produce a local air quality plan to reduce levels of NO₂ in the shortest possible time. Sheffield City Council has therefore been allocated initial funding to develop a proposal for a feasibility study. Further funding will be made available to carry out that feasibility study and for the implementation of agreed measures to bring Sheffield into compliance with the legal limit in the shortest possible time.