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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Environment Agency's Pollution Inventory of 2015, what method of monitoring PM10 and PM2.5 emissions were used by the (a) six cement works, (b) 33 chemical works, (c) 13 energy from waste sites, (d) 42 food and drink works and (e) 19 hazardous waste sites that reported on emissions of PM10 and PM2.5 in 2015.

The Environment Agency (EA) does not hold this information centrally and could only provide it at disproportionate cost.

The EA’s Pollution Inventory Reporting General Guidance describes the different methods which operators can use to determine releases. There are:

• Measurement – based on standardised or accepted methods

• Calculation – based on nationally or internationally agreed estimation methods and emission factors that represent the industrial sectors; and

• Estimation – these are non-standardised and are based on expert judgement.