Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent estimate he has made of the annual amount of carcinogens that are released by biofuels activity in the UK.

The Department for Transport has not made any annual estimates of carcinogens that are released by biofuels activity. This data is not required to meet the mandatory sustainability criteria under the EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED), which is applicable to biofuels supplied in the UK under the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO).

Voluntary schemes approved by the European Commission can set criteria for aspects of biofuel production aimed at minimising adverse environmental impacts associated with agricultural production, including on air quality, in addition to setting sustainability criteria. In 2012/13 eighty one per cent of biofuel supplied in the UK under the RTFO was covered by an approved voluntary scheme, the vast majority of which include additional aspects aimed at minimising the impact on air quality of the cultivation and harvesting of biofuel feedstocks.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs' Air Quality Expert Group has considered the potential impacts of increased biofuel use on air pollutants, such as particulate matter, and concluded that these should fall with most biofuel uptake scenarios. The Group's Report Road Transport Biofuels: Impact on UK Air Quality, is published at:

http://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/assets/documents/110322_AQEG_Biofuels_advice_note.pdf

In respect of the biofuel supply chain the European Commission produced a staff working document accompanying its renewable energy progress report to the European Parliament in 2013 which is published at:

http://ec.europa.eu/energy/renewables/reports/doc/swd_2013_0102_res_en.pdf

It concluded that between 2008 and 2010, there was limited change in threats to air quality from EU biofuel demand.