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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will update the Local Air Quality Management Technical Guidance 22 to provide more detailed best practices and case studies to help encourage the use by local authorities of small sensors in local air quality management.

Our Local Air Quality Management Technical Guidance 2022 considers the use of low-cost sensors and refers local authorities to existing certification schemes for them. Defra’s Air Quality Expert Group has also provided advice, made available on UK Air, on the use of ‘low-cost‘ air pollution sensors, setting out the key considerations and issues when using these devices.

In order to offer further guidance to local authorities, Defra launched a project in 2022 to develop a publicly available specification (PAS) on the use of low-cost sensors. This is in effect a code of practice for the use of such systems for measuring outdoor air pollutants and is scheduled to be delivered in late 2023.