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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent estimate he has made of the number of local authorities that have areas with levels of particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide that are above (a) UK limits and (b) WHO guidance.

Under the Air Quality Standards Regulations 2010, Defra undertakes an annual assessment of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations. In September 2021, Defra published the latest ‘Air Pollution in the UK’ report, detailing the results of this assessment, 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 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.