Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of whether the air quality objectives set out in Annex II of Directive 2008/50/EC on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe will be breached in any location scheduled to be affected by the construction of Phase One of High Speed 2.

The Environmental Statement and Supplementary Environmental Statements for the Phase One hybrid Bill fully assessed the impact on air quality from HS2 construction. Those assessments specifically considered the limit values set out in Annex II of Directive 2008/50/EC, and identified whether the limit values are currently breached, were anticipated to be breached in the future, and to what extent any breaches would be affected by the construction of Phase One of High Speed Two.