Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on the extent of air pollution (a) directly and (b) indirectly affecting the health of (i) individuals and (ii) communities in England.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), formerly Public Health England, estimated future morbidity from air pollution, predicting that between 2017 and 2035 in England, 1,327,424 new cases of disease would be attributable to PM2.5, equivalent to 2,248 new cases of disease per 100,000 people. The highest numbers of these cases were predicted to be from coronary heart disease, diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In England, an estimated 1,140,018 new cases of disease attributable to nitrogen dioxide is predicted by 2035, equivalent to 1,933 new cases of disease per 100,000 population. In 2022, the UKHSA estimated that the burden of long-term exposure to air pollution in 2019 in the United Kingdom was an effect equivalent to 29,000 to 43,000 deaths for adults aged 30 years old and over.

For local authorities and regions, the UKHSA produces annual estimates of the fraction of mortality attributable to particulate air pollution within the Public Health Outcomes Framework for England.