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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, for what reasons he imposed a charging clean air zone in Bradford.

Air pollution is a major public health risk and is a particular threat to vulnerable groups including the elderly and those with chronic respiratory and heart diseases. The mortality burden of the air pollution mixture based on both PM2.5 and NO₂ in the UK is an effect equivalent to 28,000 to 36,000 deaths (Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants, 2018).

Under the 2017 UK Plan for Tackling Roadside Nitrogen Dioxide Concentrations and its further Supplement in 2018, 61 local authorities were directed to develop plans for delivering NO₂ compliance in the shortest possible time. Bradford was identified in the 2018 supplement as having roads exceeding legal levels for NO₂, and since then has been working on a local plan to identify and implement measures to address these exceedances in the shortest possible time to safeguard public health.

As the 2017 plan sets out, it is for local authorities to determine what the appropriate solution is for tackling NO ₂ concentrations, reflecting the highly localised nature of the problem. In some cases, local authorities will determine that a Clean Air Zone (CAZ) is the intervention required. However, given the potential impacts on individuals and businesses, when considering between equally effective alternatives to deliver compliance, Government has been consistently clear that if a local authority can identify measures other than charging zones that are at least as effective at reducing NO₂ to legal levels but with less of an impact, those measures should be preferred. Any alternative will need to deliver compliance as quickly as a charging CAZ if it is to be preferred for inclusion in the plans which local authorities develop.

Having gone through a detailed business case development process following guidance provided by the Government's Joint Air Quality Unit, Bradford has identified that a Class C Clean Air Zone is needed in order to deliver the legal obligation to tackle NO₂ exceedances in the shortest possible time. Government considered the business case submitted by Bradford earlier this year and has accepted Bradford's evidence that a class C CAZ is required. As part of this approvals process, the business case and supporting evidence were considered by an independent technical panel established to review the evidence submitted by local authorities to support their proposals. The Government is now working with Bradford on the implementation of the CAZ and has also provided Bradford with £31 million from the Clean Air Fund to help local businesses and individuals adapt to the CAZ, including grants to help upgrade vehicles.