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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to reduce levels of light pollution from large industrial units.

The Government does recognise that good use of artificial light can contribute to preventing accidents; reducing crime and creating safer spaces and promoting the night time economy, benefiting us all in various ways.

The Government has put in place a range of measures to ensure that light pollution is effectively managed through controls in the planning system; the Permitted Development Regime and the Statutory Nuisance Regime.

The Environmental Protection Act requires local authorities to take reasonably practicable steps to investigate complaints of artificial light emitted from premises so as to be prejudicial to human health or a nuisance and they have powers to take action where there is a problem.