Air Pollution: North of England

(asked on 6th February 2020) - View Source

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the number of PM2.5 particles in the air of cities in the north of England.


Answered by
Rebecca Pow Portrait
Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This question was answered on 13th February 2020

The Clean Air Strategy (CAS), published in January 2019, set out the comprehensive action required across all parts of Government to improve air quality. Towns and cities across the whole of the UK will benefit from the implementation of the commitments made in the CAS.

For example, the CAS outlined a comprehensive suite of actions to tackle emissions from domestic burning, which is the single largest contributor to national emissions of fine particulate matter (PM2.5). These actions include legislating to prohibit the sale of the most polluting fuels, which we have consulted on and to which we intend to publish our formal response in the near future.

The Environment Bill delivers key parts of the CAS, including measures to help local authorities tackle smoke emissions from domestic burning. The Bill also establishes a legally binding duty to set a target for PM2.5. The introduction of measures to meet this target will reduce PM2.5 concentrations across the whole country, particularly in locations where concentrations are highest, often where people are most exposed such as in urban areas where many people live and work.

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