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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how and to whom the pollution alert on ozone in Eastern England was distributed on 18 July 2014.

Defra issued an air pollution alert to the public on 18 July this year due to levels of ozone measured at Sibton (189µgm³) and St Osyth (185µgm³) in Eastern England. The alert was issued when hourly measurements exceeded the ozone public information threshold of 180 µg/m³ (micrograms per metre cubed) as defined in the Air Quality Directive 2008/50/EC.

The alert was issued on Defra’s UK_Air website at:

http://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/latest/alerts, and air quality Twitter feed @defraUKAir, giving details of the locations and measurements, as well as relevant health advice. Members of the public can also receive air quality information such as alerts by signing up to email bulletins at http://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/subscribe.

Defra works closely with Public Health England to ensure information and health advice is provided to the public when pollution levels are elevated.