Kerry McCarthy – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2015-11-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much her Department has spent on measures to improve air quality in each year since 2010-11; how much funding has been allocated to air quality improvement in the 2015-16 financial year; and what estimate she has made of the funding needed until 2020 to bring air pollution levels to within legal limits.

Rory Stewart

The Government has committed over £2 billion since 2011 in measures to improve air quality. As road transport is the dominant source of pollution most of the funding has been allocated from the Department for Transport. Defra’s contribution has taken the form of payments made under the Air Quality Grant Scheme to support local authority action on air pollution. Total payments made under the Scheme in each year are as follows:

Future funding will depend on the outcome of the current Spending Review.

The government has recently consulted on draft national and local Air Quality Plans for the UK. The finalised plans will be submitted to the European Commission by 31 December.