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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the World Health Organisation conclusion that there is no safe level of PM2.5 or PM10.

Particulate matter will always exist as long as we have sea salt, sand and other forms of dust. Particulate pollution is also blown over from neighbouring countries.

We will continue to reduce public exposure to particulate matter from man-made sources in the environment as set out in our draft Clean Air Strategy. We consulted on a commitment to halve the population living in areas with concentrations of fine particulate matter above World Health Organisation (WHO) guideline levels by 2025. The WHO have commended our ambition; this goes further than European Union requirements and we are the first industrialised nation to commit to progressively reducing fine particulate matter pollution in this way. Our final Clean Air Strategy will be published shortly.