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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to reduce the amount of (a) chemicals and (b) toxic metal being sprayed into the atmosphere above the UK; and if she will make a statement.

We are committed to improving air quality through reducing harmful emissions. We have reduced emissions to the atmosphere (including toxic metals) significantly over the last 20 years through a range of measures including implementation of European Legislation. These trends are reported in the National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory at: http://naei.defra.gov.uk/ and also reported in the annual report, Air Pollution in the UK at: http://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/library/annualreport/ .