National Air Quality Strategy (Hansard, 13 January 1999)

§ Mr. Prescott

I am pleased to announce today our proposals to amend the UK National Air Quality Strategy. Cleaning up the air that we breathe and delivering on the right to clean air is one of the top priorities of this Government. There is still some way to go to protect our health and the environment from the effects of air pollution. The proposals that I am announcing today deliver on our pre-election commitment to the right to clean air. But improving air quality is not just for Government, or industry, we all have a responsibility to do our bit to improve the quality of our air.

The National Air Quality Strategy was first published in March 1997 fulfilling the requirement under the Environment Act 1995 for a national air quality strategy setting out policies for the management of ambient air quality. The Government endorsed this Strategy in July 1997, but announced that it would be reviewed at the earliest opportunity in order to look at the prospects for delivering cleaner air more quickly. The Government accordingly brought forward to the end of 1998 the previously announced review, and as a result we have been able to make rapid progress on delivering our commitment to the right to clean air.

The Strategy sets health-based objectives for 2005 for the eight air pollutants which have the greatest impact on health. Our aim in the review was to look at the prospects for meeting the objectives sooner or introducing tougher objectives where feasible and justified. This has been a thorough and wide-ranging review, during which we considered the legal framework, the scientific, economic and technical basis for decision-making on air quality policy, and the case for changes to the scope and content of the Strategy. My Department has worked closely with the Scottish Office, Welsh Office and Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland and we have consulted widely with stakeholders in producing our proposals.

We have now completed the review and propose to tighten the objectives for five pollutants; for benzene, 1,3-butadiene and carbon monoxide we propose to bring forward the date for achieving the objectives; for lead we propose to bring forward the date for achieving the existing objective and to introduce a new tougher objective based on the most recent health advice; for nitrogen dioxide we propose to introduce a tougher hourly objective, while retaining the current annual objective. Action is in progress at EU level on ozone and we have concluded that it makes sense to await the outcome of that before deciding how to move forward on this pollutant. On particles (PM¹⁰) the work of the Airborne Particles Expert Group has shown that exceedences of our national 215W objective are strongly influenced by sources from mainland Europe. This is not a problem that the UK can solve alone. We intend to discuss with our European partners how best this issue can be taken forward at the European level. In addition, it is not yet clear whether PM¹⁰ or a smaller fraction of particles poses the greater threat to health. We have concluded that in the short term to incorporate the proposed EU vales for PM¹⁰ will provide adequate protection as an interim step towards achieving the existing objective. We will look at this objective again, as well as those for nitrogen dioxide, when we undertake a further review of the Strategy in two years time. On sulphur dioxide, we propose to retain the existing objective, supplemented by the proposed EU limit values. We are also proposing to extend the Strategy to include objectives for the protection of vegetation and ecosystems. The changes we propose will also ensure that we deliver the limit values contained in the proposed first Air Quality Daughter Directive.

We will now consult widely on our proposals. We will produce a revised Strategy later this year, which will itself be subject to consultation before being finalised by the end of the year. This is the first in a rolling programme of reviews of the Strategy, to keep it up to date with technological and scientific advances, improved modelling techniques, an increasingly better understanding of the economic and social issues involved and to reflect developments in European legislation. We intend that the next review of the Strategy should start once this one is complete and further information is available on costs and benefits, the health effects of air pollution and the impact that policy measures will have on improving air quality.

We all have a responsibility to do our bit to improve the quality of the air that we breathe and the environment that we live in. The proposals that we have announced today set in place the framework to take this forward. I have placed copies of our consultation document in the Libraries of the House and the Vote Office.