Asked by: Lord Judd (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the forthcoming Environment Bill and all other relevant environmental legislation enshrines legally binding provisions to meet air quality standards, set out by the World Health Organization.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The draft Environment Bill, published in December last year, would place the 25 Year Environment Plan on a statutory footing by establishing a new statutory cycle of environmental planning, monitoring and reporting. The Government also committed to exploring the inclusion of additional targets for environmental improvement within this cycle.
In the Environment Bill policy paper, also published in December last year, we reaffirmed that improving air quality is a key part of our plan to leave the environment in a better state than we found it.
In our Clean Air Strategy, published in January this year, we set out our ambition to reduce people’s exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and committed to setting a new, ambitious, long-term target to reduce people’s exposure to PM2.5. We also committed to publishing a report this year examining what action would need to be taken to meet the World Health Organization’s (WHO) PM2.5 annual mean guideline level of 10μg/m3, and we will use this evidence to inform the target which we set.
The actions in the Strategy will reduce concentrations of PM2.5 for everyone, resulting in a halving of the number of people living in areas with annual mean concentrations of PM2.5 above the WHO’s guideline level of 10μg/m3 by 2025, compared with 2016.
We are the first major economy to set out ambitions based on the WHO’s PM2.5 targets, and our Clean Air Strategy was welcomed by the WHO’s Director General as “an example for the rest of the world to follow.”
Asked by: Lord Judd (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that Natural England is fulfilling its duties and responsibilities.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The relationship between Defra and Natural England is clearly set out in Natural England’s Framework Document. Priorities and performance measures are agreed across the Defra Group and with the Secretary of State. Performance is monitored and challenged within Natural England through monthly reports to the non-Executive Board, and to Defra through reporting against the Single Departmental Plan on a quarterly basis. The Secretary of State also reviews performance at biannual meetings with Natural England’s Chair and Chief Executive. Financial management is reviewed monthly between Natural England and Defra Finance teams.
Asked by: Lord Judd (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the adequacy of the funding for Natural England to enable it to discharge its duties and responsibilities.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Natural England, like all other Defra sponsored bodies, receives an appropriate budget to carry out its duties and responsibilities in line with what is affordable and the priorities set out by the Secretary of State.