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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what information her Department holds on the level of biomass power generation in the UK located in (a) urban areas and (b) areas of above average atmospheric pollution; and if her Department will publish that information.

Defra only holds information for biomass generation in England. Power-generating stations that burn only biomass are located in: Brigg, Lincolnshire; Ely, Cambridgeshire; Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire; Selby, North Yorkshire; Sleaford, Lincolnshire; Snetterton, Norfolk; and Telford, Shropshire. There are power generating stations that co-fire biomass with other fuels such as gas or coal, but the proportion of biomass burning in these is very low.

Defra assesses air quality through a combination of fixed monitoring and modelling, and data is freely available on our website. While it is not straightforward to define “above average air pollution”, pollution levels can be found at: uk-air.defra.gov.uk/interactive-map by locating the nearest monitoring station and looking at the latest and historical data for that site. Modelled data is presented on a GIS map at: uk-air.defra.gov.uk/data/gis-mapping. Locations can be searched and overlays are displayed for different pollutants.