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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on the effect of air quality on (a) death and (b) infection from covid-19; and when such discussions occurred.

Defra continues to hold extensive discussions with the Department for Health and Social Care on the relationship between air quality and health. These have included the specific relationship between air quality and covid-19 transmission, infections and deaths.

In response to Defra's call for evidence on COVID-19 and air quality (April 2020 and published in June 2020), the scientific community and appointed experts from Defra and Public Health England (PHE) considered the possible link between air quality and COVID-19 infection. They concluded that there was no clear empirical evidence of a link at that stage:

2007010844_Estimation_of_Changes_in_Air_Pollution_During_COVID-19_outbreak_in_the_UK.pdf (defra.gov.uk)

Officials and appointed experts from Defra, PHE and the Office for National Statistics delivered a project to describe the relationship between air pollution exposure and COVID-19 deaths. The results and methodology were shared with the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), and a summary of the findings were published in August 2020 at the following URL:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ons-air-pollution-and-covid-19-mortality-rates-in-england-6-august-2020

The methodology used in this analysis project was also published at the following URL:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/environmentalaccounts/methodologies/coronaviruscovid19relatedmortalityratesandtheeffectsofairpollutioninengland

The Departments continue to actively engage on a regular basis.