Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if the Government will make it its policy not to permit any airport expansion that would worsen air quality in an area where breaches to current or likely future air quality limits are already anticipated or where there is a significant risk of such expansion causing breaches to current or likely future limits.

The Government is determined to meet the requirements set out in the Ambient Air Quality Directive and to do so in the shortest time possible. As set out in the recent National Air Quality Plan, the Government intends and expects that the UK will be fully compliant by 2025.

Any decision regarding future airport capacity will take into account the Government’s Air Quality Plan and its commitment to comply with EU air quality limit values.