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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the level of sulphur dioxide was in the UK in each of the last ten years.

Defra’s national Automatic Urban and Rural Monitoring Network (AURN) currently has 28 sites monitoring sulphur dioxide every 15 minutes in the UK. Over the last 10 years (2008 – 2018) concentrations of sulphur dioxide monitored have remained consistently low. The UK has been compliant with legally binding limit values for sulphur dioxide for the entire period.

The low concentration levels are in part linked to large reductions in UK sulphur dioxide emissions (a 67% reduction between 2008 and 2017).