Lord Bradshaw – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Bradshaw on 2014-04-03.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what proportion of road vehicles in Great Britain are fitted with efficient particulate filters; and what assessment they have made of the potential benefit from fitting such devices.

Baroness Kramer

We have no firm information, but our best current estimate is that about seventeen percent of cars currently in use are fitted with wall-flow diesel particulate filters. We have made no estimate of the proportion of lorries, buses, and coaches that are fitted with diesel particulate filters. Reduction in airborne particulate has clear public health benefits. Some 29,000 premature deaths are estimated to occur each year as a result of airborne particulate, and poor air quality has health costs estimated at £15 billion annually for the UK.