Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of (a) the adequacy of the World Health Organisation's latest air pollution guidelines and (b) the potential effect of the Government adopting those guidelines on (i) mortality rates in the UK and (ii) the annual cost to the NHS of treating people affected by air pollution.

The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Air Quality Guidelines provide clear evidence that air pollution damages health at lower concentrations than previously understood. The UK Health Security Agency has made no recent assessment of the potential effect of adopting the WHO’s guidelines.

However, in 2018, the Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants estimated in 2018 that the United Kingdom mortality burden of long-term exposure to the air pollution mixture was an annual effect equivalent to 28,000 to 36,000 deaths. The former Public Health England estimated the total cost to the National Health Service and social care from air pollution in England to be around £1.60 billion for fine particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide. A one microgram per cubic metre reduction in fine particulate matter could prevent around 50,900 cases of coronary heart disease, 16,500 strokes, 9,300 cases of asthma and 4,200 lung cancers over 18 years. By improving air quality below the current standards, we could see additional health benefits in reducing cases of disease and lowering costs to the NHS.