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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of adopting World Health Organisation Air Standards.

The Government is committed to meeting current legal targets for air quality, including the targets recently set under the Environment Act 2021, and will review the policy measures needed to achieve them. We will deliver a comprehensive Clean Air Strategy, including a series of interventions to reduce emissions so that everyone’s exposure to air pollution is reduced.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) air quality guidelines are intended to inform the setting of air quality standards and are not ready-made targets for direct adoption as they do not consider achievability or individual countries’ circumstances. However, we will consider WHO guidelines as part of an evidence led process when considering future targets.