Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to reduce air pollution from trucks and HGVs.

The Government is working to address the environmental impacts associated with HGVs by encouraging the development and uptake of cleaner fuels and vehicle technologies.

The Department for Transport’s £20m Low Emission Freight and Logistics Trial has over 300 vehicles demonstrating a range of new low emission technologies on UK roads. In February £1m of grant funding was awarded to three technology providers to support the accreditation testing of vehicle retrofit technologies, in particular for HGVs and coaches.

From 1 September 2018, DVSA enforcement staff across Great Britain have been checking lorries for emissions cheat devices. Cheat devices mean a lorry can produce up to 20 times more dangerous emissions. The national rollout of checks follows a successful year-long pilot. During the pilot, DVSA enforcement staff caught 449 emission cheats at 5 sites across the country.