§ Mr. CorbynTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what information was received by his Department concerning air pollution levels in London between 8 and 11 December; and if he will make a statement. [6479]
§ Mr. Clappison[holding answer 18 December 1995]: The Department of the Environment receives information on hourly concentrations of nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, fine particles—PM 10—carbon monoxide, ozone, benzene and 1, 3–butadiene from its data dissemination unit at the national environmental technology centre, Culham, Oxfordshire. This information is also made available on the Internet. Information on hourly levels of nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide and ozone, described as "very good", "good", "poor" or "very poor", together with a forecast for the following day, is made available on Ceefax, Teletext and a range of other media.
Between 8 and 11 December "poor" air quality was forecast for London. "Poor" air quality then occurred for nitrogen dioxide for a period of eight hours at the Department's automatic monitoring site at Cromwell road and for two hours at Earls Court. One hour of "poor" sulphur dioxide occurred at Bexley. There were no forecasts or occurrences of "very poor" air quality.