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 potential risk of incinerators to public health.

In England, waste incinerators cannot operate unless issued with an environmental permit by the Environment Agency (EA). The EA assesses the emissions from new incinerators as part of its permitting process and consults the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) on every application received. The UKHSA’s position is that modern, well-run and regulated municipal waste incinerators are not a significant risk to public health. This view is based on detailed assessments of the effects of air pollutants on health and on the fact that these incinerators make only a very small contribution to local and national concentrations of air pollutants.