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 his Department has made of trends in the level of nitrogen dioxide in the air in Erith and Thamesmead constituency.

The Mayor of London is responsible for air quality in the capital and has reserve powers under Part IV of the Environment Act 1995 to reflect this.

As part of these responsibilities the Mayor of London carries out monitoring of air quality in London, and this is likely to include an assessment of nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) levels in Erith and Thamesmead.

The most recent national compliance assessment for NO₂ shows that all road links in Erith and Thamesmead that are included in the assessment were below the annual mean limit value for NO₂ of 40 µg/m³ in 2019, with the highest concentration recorded at 37.6 µg/m³ on the A2016. The full data is available online at https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/data/gis-mapping/.

The UK is compliant with our air quality obligations for all pollutants with the exception of NO₂ concentrations at roadside locations, and we have put in place a £3.8 billion plan to tackle this issue. More widely, the Government’s Clean Air Strategy sets out an ambitious programme of action to reduce air pollution from a wide range of sources. Our Environment Bill delivers key parts of this strategy and makes a clear commitment to set a legally binding target to reduce fine particulate matter and enables local authorities to take more effective action to tackle air pollution in their areas.