Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the High Court judgment on 2 November, <i>ClientEarth (No 2) v Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs</i>, making an order quashing the 2015 Air Quality Plan, on their plans for the extension of Heathrow.

Air quality is a significant health issue that this government takes very seriously. The Government believes that the Heathrow Northwest Runway scheme can be delivered without impacting on the UK’s compliance with air quality limit values, with a suitable package of policies and mitigation measures.

The Government remains determined to meet its air quality obligations in the shortest possible time and will carefully consider the High Court judgment, and next steps.

As announced by the Secretary of State for Transport on 25 October, the Department for Transport, Defra and HM Treasury have already embarked on a joint project to identify further ways in which we can tackle this issue. By the time a new runway opens in the next decade, we intend to have made very substantial progress in tackling air quality challenges across our nation as a whole.