Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department have taken steps to commission research on the potential impact of air pollution on developing lungs and brains during pregnancy.

The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR has over £13 million allocated to active research into air pollution. The NIHR supports a range of research on the effects of air quality on health, including the relationship between exposure to air pollutants and adverse birth outcomes in England, Scotland and Wales. This is primarily undertaken through the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Environmental Exposures and Health at Imperial College London, with the UK Health Security Agency.