Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the levels of toxic air pollutants in Plymouth.

An annual assessment based on both monitoring and supplementary modelling is undertaken annually. Plymouth is covered by the South West zone and the latest assessment can be found here:

https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/library/annualreport/viewonline?year=2020_issue_1#report_pdf

Defra's national network, the Automatic Urban and Rural Network (AURN) provides measurements of air pollutant concentrations throughout the UK for a range of pollutants, which includes 3 monitoring sites in Plymouth. These sites form part of a network of 171 sites across the UK, used to monitor compliance with the Air Quality Standards Regulations (2010). An interactive map showing the location of monitoring sites forming part of the AURN in Plymouth can be found at the following URL: https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/interactive-map

The AURN network provides high resolution hourly information, communicated rapidly to the public, using a wide range of electronic, media and web platforms. Data from monitoring sites in Plymouth is accessible through the following URL: https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/data/

Defra's Pollution Climate Mapping model estimates concentrations of air pollutants at 1km² grid squares across the UK. An interactive map to display these concentrations can be found through the following URL:

https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/data/gis-mapping/

Plymouth City Council also carries out air quality monitoring as part of the Local Air Quality Management process and provides Defra with annual reports on the status of air quality within its Local Authority boundary. These reports detail strategies employed to improve air quality and any progress that has been made. Plymouth has a single city-wide Air Quality Management Area, which is due to levels of nitrogen dioxide exceeding national objectives. Summary statistics for all its Air Quality measurements can be found in its annual status reports, available through the following URL: https://www.plymouth.gov.uk/environmentandpollution/airquality