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Written question asked by Mims Davies (Conservative) on Friday, 2 September 2016, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 7 September 2016 (named day). It was answered by Baroness Coffey (Conservative) on Wednesday, 7 September 2016 on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Local Air Quality Management

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the use of air quality management areas by local authorities.

Answer

Air quality has improved significantly in recent decades and we are working at local, national and international levels to continue those improvements. The UK currently meets legal limits for almost all pollutants; however, reducing levels for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) remains the most challenging.

Local authorities (LAs) have opportunities to improve air quality for the protection of public health and the environment through decisions they make on land use planning, permitting, roads and air quality management areas (AQMAs).

Across the UK, 259 LAs declared 715 AQMAs since 1999. Most AQMAs in the UK are in urban areas and have been established to address the contribution to air pollution from traffic emissions of NO2 or particulate matter (PM10). Details of the current AQMAs declared by LAs, broken down by region and pollutant, are set out in the table below.

Region

Total LAs

Number of LAs with AQMAs

For NO2

For PM10

For SO2

England (outside London)

294

193

497

38

6

London

33

33

33

29

0

Scotland

32

14

25

21

1

Wales

22

10

37

1

0

N. Ireland

11

9

20

7

0

TOTAL

393

259

612

96

7

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
44749
Session
2016-17
Transferred
Yes
Subjects
Local air quality management
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk