Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the implications for the Government's policies of research into the potential effect of air pollution on the birth-weight of babies.

The Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollution work plan includes early life effects of which a low birth weight is an important part. Currently the impacts of air pollution on development and morbidity are less understood than the impact on mortality, and the Government will consider the implications in the light of further expert advice as it becomes available.