Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to ensure that expansion at Heathrow airport is compatible with legal air quality limits.

Following designation of the Airports National Policy Statement, it is now down to an applicant for development consent to undertake a detailed assessment of the air quality impacts of the scheme, including during construction, and put forward to the Planning Inspectorate an appropriate package of mitigations that addresses air quality impacts and demonstrates compliance with air quality obligations.

In order to grant development consent, the Secretary of State would need to be satisfied that, including any mitigations, the scheme would be compliant with legal obligations.