Alan Whitehead – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Whitehead on 2016-09-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to her Department’s announcement of 17 December 2015 on improving air quality in cities, what progress her Department has made on deciding what resources, funding and guidance will be made available to the five local authorities which are introducing clean air zones.
Dr Thérèse Coffey
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.
The national air quality plan for NO2, published in December last year, combines targeted local and national measures, forming part of a wider approach that exploits new and clean technologies, such as electric and ultra-low emission vehicles. As part of the national plan we are requiring five cities to implement Clean Air Zones. The relevant cities are Birmingham, Derby, Leeds, Nottingham and Southampton.
The Joint Air Quality Unit has been established to deliver the national plan and is working in close cooperation with local authorities. The unit will provide guidance and support to local authorities to implement the plan by producing a Clean Air Zone framework which will set out how zones should be implemented, ensuring consistency across English local authorities. This will allow businesses and individuals to make straightforward economic decisions about which vehicles to purchase, and how and when they use them. We will support local authorities to make improvements to air quality through a variety of measures, including the Air Quality Grant, a competitive fund supporting local action to improve air quality.
We are also providing dedicated support for the five cities which are required to implement Clean Air Zones by funding local scoping studies. In addition, we will provide funding to help these local authorities implement the zones and, where necessary, support the implementation of additional measures.
