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 impact of the covid-19 outbreak on fine particulate matters emissions between 2019 and 2020.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdown, Defra reacted promptly to the emerging situation by working with the Air Quality Expert Group on a rapid call for evidence leading to a report assessing the impact of the first lockdown on air pollutant emissions and concentrations in the UK. The report is available at https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/library/reports.php?report_id=1005.

The emissions data for 2020 and historic years going back to 1970 were published on 14^th February 2022.

Defra also published projections on 15^th March 2021 which estimated the impact of Covid-19 on emissions. The data and assumptions used in this modelling can be found in the Informative Inventory Report (IIR), published at https://naei.beis.gov.uk/reports/reports?report_id=1024.