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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government which European Union directives apply to urban air pollution; and how each is enacted in United Kingdom law.

There are two main pieces of European legislation applicable to urban air pollution:

• The Ambient Air Quality and Cleaner Air for Europe Directive 2008 (“the Directive”) applies to urban air pollution. It has been transposed in England by the Air Quality Standards Regulations 2010. In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland respectively, the Directive has been transposed by the Air Quality Standards (Scotland) Regulations 2010, the Air Quality Standards (Wales) Regulations 2010 and the Air Pollution and the Air Quality Standards Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2010. The regulations reflect the legally binding limits set by the Directive for concentrations in outdoor air of major air pollutants that impact public health such as particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5) and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂). The Directive requires the undertaking of air quality assessments and the reporting of findings to the European Commission annually. The UK has statutory monitoring networks in place to meet the requirements of the Directive, with air quality modelling used to supplement the monitored data.
• The National Emission Ceilings Directive (2001/81/EC) (NECD) sets limits on total annual emissions of key air pollutants (sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds and ammonia) to help reduce transboundary air pollution. The NECD is transposed into UK law by the National Emission Ceilings Regulations 2002.

There is also further legislation aimed at delivering specific reductions in emissions from certain areas of the economy, which for competitive or single market reasons has been set at European level. This includes:

• The Industrial Emissions Directive (2010/75/EU)
• The Sulphur Content of Liquid Fuels Directive (1993/32/EC)
• Petrol Vapour Recovery Directive (94/63/EC)
• The Quality of Petrol and Diesel Fuels Directive (98/70/EC)

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