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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the levels of toxic air in the West Midlands.

The UK Automatic Urban and Rural Network provides measurements of air pollutant concentrations throughout the UK for a range of pollutants. The network provides high resolution hourly information which is communicated rapidly to the public, using a wide range of electronic, media and web platforms. Data from sites across the West Midlands is uploaded automatically onto the UK Air Website, accessible through the following URL:

https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/data/

Defra's Pollution Climate Mapping model estimates background and roadside concentrations of air pollutants at 1km2 grid squares across the UK. An interactive map to display these concentrations can be found at the following URL:

https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/data/gis-mapping/

In September, Defra published the Air Pollution in the UK report, making information on the ambient air quality evidence base for the year publicly available. This includes an assessment of trends and spatial distribution, together with information on pollution events during the year, and is available through the following URL:

https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/assets/documents/annualreport/air_pollution_uk_2020_issue_1.pdf

Local Authorities also carry out air quality monitoring as part of the Local Air Quality Management process and provide DEFRA with annual reports on the status of air quality within their Local Authority boundary. Summary statistics for all their Air Quality measurements can be found within their annual status report, publicly available on the website of the respective local authority.