Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many people in the UK have signed up to receive air pollution alerts from UK-AIR; and what mechanisms he is using to monitor the effectiveness of the air quality alert system at (a) reaching the intended audience and (b) meeting its other goals.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
450 people are currently signed up to receive air pollution alerts from UK Air. Metrics to monitor the effectiveness of the new system are being considered as part of the design process.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will include PM2.5 in the UK Air quality alerts.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
PM2.5 is one of the pollutants already included in the Daily Air Quality Index (DAQI). The department is currently in the process of making improvements to our air quality alert system to more closely align to the DAQI
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the (a) powers and (b) funding available to local authorities to enforce smoke control areas.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra continues to support local authorities who have declared or are exploring declaring smoke control areas.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 26 March 2025 to Question 39813 on Air Pollution, whether the discussions his Department is having with the Met Office on areas for improvement includes the Air Quality Information Systems Review recommendation to review, update and expand the existing alert systems.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The department is engaging with the Met Office to deliver improvements to the pollution forecasts and alerts service.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that people who do not (a) sign up to receive alerts and (b) actively check the UK-AIR website are alerted to high air pollution events.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The department has begun work to develop, test and launch a new air quality alert system which will make it easier for the public to sign up to receive alerts when high levels of pollution are expected.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many air pollution alerts were issued between March 2024 and March 2025 by his Department's UK-AIR alerts when thresholds within Air Quality Standards Regulations (2010) were exceeded; on which dates; and how many unique visitors accessed the Daily Air Quality Index forecast webpage during that period.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Air pollution alerts are issued when thresholds within the Air Quality Standards Regulations (2010) for Ozone, Sulphur Dioxide or Nitrogen Dioxide are exceeded. The last time one of these alerts was issued was September 2023. ~ 2000 unique visitors accessed the DAQI during that alert.
Visitors to UK Air can also sign up to receive email bulletins providing a summary of the last hour or 24 hour’s air quality measurement data; daily updated forecasts of UK air pollution concentrations and notifications if the Alert Threshold in an Air Quality Daughter Directive is exceeded.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to monitor the effective implementation of Government consultation principles on the needs of people affected by air pollution.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra seeks to align its consultations with the Cabinet Office consultations principles, published in 2018, to ensure our consultations are accessible to a wide variety of stakeholders and gather the best possible information to assist with policy development.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 24 October 2024 to Question 10174 on Pesticides, when he plans to publish the National Action Plan on the Sustainable Use of Pesticides.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We intend to publish a Pesticides National Action Plan this year.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans he has to involve communities and stakeholders in the development of a new Clean Air Strategy; and what his planned timetable is for completing the strategy.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is committed to meeting current legal targets for air quality, including the targets recently set under the Environment Act 2021, and will review the policy measures needed to achieve them.
The Government launched a rapid review of the Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP) to revise our plan for significantly improving the environment, including for air quality. The Government concluded the review of the EIP at the end of last year and published a statement of the rapid review’s key findings on 30 January 2025.
We will continue to engage with stakeholders, communities and interested parties in meetings to develop a strategy to clean up our air and reduce emissions so that everyone’s exposure to air pollution is reduced.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he plans to answer Question 23103 on Air Pollution, published on 9 January 2025.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The next review of our statutory Air Quality Strategy is due to be completed by mid-2028. We intend to bring forward that date whilst ensuring we have time to work closely with stakeholders to co-design the new strategy.