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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department plans to take steps to (a) monitor chemical trails discharged by aircraft and (b) analyse air quality and soil samples to identify chemicals and their potential impact on the (i) environment, (ii) food and (iii) health.

Emissions from aircraft are strictly regulated by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). ICAO sets global standards to limit emissions of oxides of nitrogen, particulates and some other air pollutants from aircraft engines.

Most recently, ICAO set particulate emissions standards for aircraft engines in 2019, which have now been adopted into UK law and came into force on 1 January 2023. These were the first scientifically based global certification standards for aircraft particulate emissions.

Defra monitors air quality and assesses its impacts on an ongoing basis. Data from our nationwide monitoring networks can be found on UK-AIR.

National soil monitoring under the Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment (NCEA) programme began in 2022. NCEA will provide high quality data to assess the state and condition of natural capital assets, ecosystems, and biodiversity in terrestrial and freshwater environments. As part of this, up-to-date and comprehensive soils data is a priority of the programme and is being measured through projects such as the strategically sampled England Ecosystem Survey and the England Peat Map.