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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the (a) levels of light pollution across the UK and (b) effect that pollution has on (i) people and (ii) wildlife.

a) Defra’s last major review of light pollution was the January 2014 publication of a policy update on artificial light in the environment. Since then we have worked with the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) to ensure that the National Planning Policy Framework policies include consideration of the impact of light pollution on local amenity, intrinsically dark landscapes and nature conservation.

Defra has also contributed to the development of the MHCLG Planning Policy Guidance on light pollution published in November 2019.

b) (i) Public Health England carried out a study in 2016 for the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers and the Society of Light and Lighting, which included an assessment of light-emitting diode (LED) streetlights on health. The study concluded that some LED streetlight luminaires emitted more blue light than was necessary, but that there was no evidence of direct adverse health effects on people.

(ii) Defra has published or contributed to a range of assessments of the impact of artificial light on insects, and wider biodiversity, as well as global and national assessments of the drivers of biodiversity loss more generally.

There have been a number of externally funded studies which have highlighted potential impacts of artificial light pollution on insects and invertebrates, which Defra keeps under review, for example, with our academic partners on the National Pollinator Strategy for England.