Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the estimated cost to the NHS of medical problems caused by breaches of air pollution limits.

Whilst there is already evidence of the impacts of air pollution on health, and ongoing work to quantify these impacts, the associated costs to the National Health Service and social care budget are less understood. Public Health England (PHE) has commissioned a consortium, led by the UK Health Forum, to carry out a project on the estimation of costs to the NHS and social care due to the health impacts of air pollution as part of PHE’s Health Economics Commissioning Framework. The aim is to enable air pollution to be assessed against other public health threats and to support the strategic priority setting process.