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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, through what mechanisms his Department receives data on levels of air pollution.

Defra’s national network of air quality monitors currently comprises 271 sites across the UK and is managed by the Environment Agency (EA). Sites are organised into networks that gather information for a wide range of pollutants in towns, cities as well as in rural areas. Some monitoring sites are focused on measuring specific sources – e.g. road traffic or industry whilst others are focused on background concentrations.

All monitoring data is made available on our UK-AIR website. Data from the Automatic Urban and Rural Network (AURN) is reported in near-real-time and is updated every hour. The website URL is: https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/.

In addition, local authorities submit their monitoring data and local actions to Defra in their Annual Status Reports. This is a requirement under the Local Air Quality Management process, underpinned by the Environment Act 1995.