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 her Department has made of air quality in (a) the North West, (b) Wirral and (c) Wallasey.

Air quality is generally improving in the UK, as set out in the annual National Statistics report at the following URL: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/air-quality-statistics.

There are 171 national monitoring stations in the UK operated by the Environment Agency on behalf of Defra, of which 18 stations are in North West and Merseyside including two in Wirral (Wirral Tranmere and Birkenhead Borough Road). Near real-time measurements from these sites and further data tools can be found on the UK-AIR website (https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/). Within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral annual mean levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and particulate matter have been below statutory limit values and stable over the last five years, consistent with national trends.

There are no automatic monitoring stations in Wallasey. However, Wirral Council also assesses its own air quality using 31 passive monitors to measure NO2 across the Borough which is made available through Annual Status Reports (https://www.wirral.gov.uk/environmental-problems/pollution-control/air-quality). Only one exceedance of the annual mean limit value for NO2 was observed in 2018 with levels at most sites either showing a lower or similar value compared to 2017 levels.