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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support the public to retrofit and upgrade vehicles in order to reduce pollution.

The Government has invested over £84 million in retrofitting vehicles with pollution reducing technology since 2013, most of which have been buses for public transport. The continued development, promotion and implementation of innovative retrofit technology will be an important element of reducing emissions of nitrogen oxides and will help bridge the gap in the journey towards zero emissions by 2050.

In February, the Government awarded £1 million of grants to three technology providers to support the accreditation testing of vehicle retrofit technologies, looking particularly to support bringing retrofit solutions for different vehicle types onto the market. These will mainly focus on HGVs and coaches. At the moment there is no practical retrofit solution for passenger cars and with their lower value and limited physical space, finding a cost effective solution will prove a challenge.