Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the levels of transport emissions in London in the each of the last three months, compared with levels in the same months of 2019; and what assessment they have made of the impact of those emissions on health.

The Mayor of London is responsible for air quality in the capital and has reserve powers under Part IV of the Environment Act 1995 to reflect this.

The Mayor carries out monitoring of air quality in London and London has its own air quality monitoring network (the London Air Quality Network) which is run by Imperial College and contains more detailed monitoring than any carried out at a national level.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ (Defra) national air quality monitoring network provides continuous measurements of a range of pollutants across the UK. This network includes five roadside sites in London and the data is made available online on Defra’s UK-Air website.

We know that air pollution is a major public health risk and poses the single greatest environmental risk to human health, which my Department is addressing through its Clean Air Strategy and the UK plan for tackling roadside nitrogen dioxide concentrations.

Defra have not carried out any specific assessment on the health impacts of air quality in London over the last 3 months.