Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the paper Associations between air pollution and multimorbidity in the UK Biobank: A cross-sectional study, if he will make an estimate of the costs of air pollution to the (a) NHS and (b) UK.

In 2018, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) published an estimation of the potential health burden and costs to the National Health Service and social care system arising due to diseases related Particulate Matter (PM2.5) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2).

Between 2017 and 2025, the total cost to the NHS and Social Care from air pollution in England is estimated to be £1.60 billion for PM2.5 and NO2 combined (£1.54 billion for PM2.5 and £60.81 million for NO2), where there is robust evidence for an association between exposure and disease; where the evidence is less robust the cost is £2.81 billion for PM2.5 and £2.75 billion for NO2.