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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessments his Department made of the potential effects of leaving the EU on the Government’s commitment to tackle air pollution and decarbonisation.

The Government is fully committed to tackling air pollution and climate change and that is independent of being a member of the EU. We have put in place a £3.5 billion plan to improve air quality. The UK also has ambitious, international targets in place to significantly reduce emissions of five damaging air pollutants by 2020 and 2030 and we are developing a Clean Air Strategy to deliver these goals. We will continue to work with member states of the EU in achieving cleaner air, recognising the transboundary nature of some pollutants.

The European Union (Withdrawal) Bill is designed to ensure that, as far as possible, the same rules and laws will apply on the day after we leave as on the day before. It will be for Parliament (and in some cases for the devolved legislatures) to make any future changes in legislation after we have left the EU.

With regards to decarbonisation, whatever the nature of the future UK-EU relationship, the UK will remain committed to international efforts to tackle climate change. Our domestic legislation - the Climate Change Act – requires us to make ambitious reductions, more than those required of us by the EU.