Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of (a) motorway noise and (b) air pollution from the M25 on schools in (i) Addlestone, (ii) Chertsey, (iii) Downside, (iv) Egham, (v) New Haw and (vi) Row Town in 2023-24.

Local outdoor air quality is the responsibility of local authorities who should prepare local air quality strategies to ensure that air quality in their area is improved.

The department takes the health, safety, and wellbeing of school users very seriously and publishes a range of guidance documents, such as the Building Bulletins, which support the provision of healthy school environments.

Where the department is centrally delivering school building projects, such as through the School Rebuilding Programme, all relevant and necessary surveys will be undertaken on the projects to inform the scheme proposals, and this list of surveys will be informed by local context and guidance from the Local Planning Authority and Statutory Consultees.