Policy paper

September 2021: Air quality factsheet (part 4)

Updated 1 April 2022

This was published under the 2019 to 2022 Johnson Conservative government

Headlines

1. The Environment Bill will deliver cleaner air for all by requiring the government to set targets on air quality, including for fine particulate matter, the most damaging pollutant to human health.
2. Councils and other relevant public bodies will be required to work together more closely to tackle local air quality issues, and it will be easier for local authorities to enforce restrictions on smoke emissions from domestic burning, which pollutes our towns and cities. The government will also be required to regularly update its National Air Quality Strategy.
3. The Bill gives the government the power to make vehicle manufacturers recall vehicles if they do not comply with relevant environmental standards, ensuring illegally polluting vehicles are taken off the road quickly.

Context

Air pollution comes from a diverse range of sources, including industry, transport, burning of solid fuels in the home, and the use of cleaning products. It poses the single greatest environmental risk to human health.

Now the UK has left the EU, we have the opportunity to take a more tailored approach to UK action on air quality even as we continue to be willing partners and allies with our European and international friends in the effort to reduce transboundary air pollution. For example, we are developing targets that are focused on tackling the sources of emissions most relevant to a UK context to deliver significant public health benefits for our citizens.

Short-term exposure to elevated levels of air pollution can cause a range of health effects and is a particular threat to vulnerable groups, including the elderly, very young, and those with existing health issues. However, long term exposure affects us all, with long-term exposure to man-made air pollution in the UK known to shorten lifespans.

Air pollution has reduced significantly over recent decades and will continue to improve thanks to the action we have already taken. For example, emissions of nitrogen oxides have fallen by 32% between 2010 and 2019 and are at their lowest level since records began, and emissions of fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) have fallen by 11% between 2010 and 2019.

The key actions the government is taking to continue to reduce emissions from a wide range of sources are set out in two documents:

• In July 2017, the government published the UK Plan for Tackling Roadside Nitrogen Dioxide Concentrations (the NO₂ plan) and subsequent supplement published in 2018, supported by a £3.8 billion investment into cleaner transport and air quality. This focuses on resolving the most immediate air quality challenge, which is nitrogen dioxide concentrations around roads, to ensure we meet our statutory air quality limits. A total of 28 local authorities were directed to produce plans to tackle NO₂ exceedances. These had the most persistent exceedances and were required to consider introducing a charging Clean Air Zone. A further 35 had to develop plans to tackle shorter term exceedances.
• The Clean Air Strategy was published in January 2019, and welcomed by the World Health Organisation as “an example for the rest of the world to follow”. It sets out the comprehensive action required across all parts of government to meet our legally binding targets to reduce emissions of five key pollutants, fine particulate matter (PM_2.5), sulphur oxides (SOx), nitrogen oxides (NOx), ammonia (NH3) and non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs), by 2020 and 2030, and secure significant public health benefits. This includes action to reduce emissions from a range of sources, including domestic solid fuel combustion, agriculture, and industrial sources. The Strategy also made a commitment to bring forward primary legislation on clean air, delivered in the Environment Bill.

What does the Bill do?

The Environment Bill delivers key aspects of our Clean Air Strategy with the aim of maximising health benefits for our citizens and sits alongside our wider action on air quality.

Legally-binding targets

The Bill introduces a legally-binding duty on the government to bring forward at least two air quality targets by October 2022.

The first is to reduce the annual average level of fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) in ambient air. This will deliver substantial public health benefits.

The second air quality target must be a long-term target (set a minimum of 15 years in the future), which will encourage long-term investment and provide certainty for businesses and other stakeholders. The environmental targets policy paper published in August 2020 outlined the proposal to break new ground and focus this target on reducing population exposure to PM_2.5.

• The principle of a population exposure reduction target is to prioritise action that is most beneficial for public health and drive continuous improvement. This target will drive improvement across all areas of the country, even in areas that already meet the new minimum standard for PM_2.5.
• This approach recognises there is no safe level or standard of PM_2.5.

A new concentration target for PM_2.5 will act as a minimum standard across the country, and a population exposure reduction target (PERT) will prioritise action to secure the biggest public health benefits drive continuous improvement across the whole country, not just in pollution hotspots.

We expect to publish a public consultation on proposed targets in early 2022.

The level and achievement date for both targets will be set in secondary legislation.

Clear framework for local action and collaboration

We will also amend the existing substantive primary legislation:

• The Environment Act 1995, which sets up the local air quality management framework (amongst many other things), including local government responsibilities to tackle air pollution
• The Clean Air Act 1993, which enables local authorities to tackle smoke emissions from chimneys of buildings, fixed boilers and industrial plants.

The Bill builds on and improves these frameworks, enabling more effective action to tackle air pollution and deliver health benefits, as well as increasing transparency, cooperation between authorities and accountability at all levels.

The amendments to the Environment Act 1995 made through the Bill will:

• Strengthen the local air quality management (LAQM) framework to enable greater cooperation at local level and broaden the range of organisations that play a role in improving local air quality. Responsibility for tackling local air pollution will now be shared with designated relevant public authorities, all tiers of local government and neighbouring authorities.
• Increase transparency and accountability by requiring the Secretary of State to regularly review the Air Quality Strategy at least every 5 years, and to publish an annual statement to Parliament on progress towards achieving air quality standards and objectives.

The amendments to the Clean Air Act 1993 made through the Bill will help local authorities reduce pollution from domestic burning, which contributed 38% of PM_2.5 emissions in 2019. Specifically, the amendments will:

• Replace the criminal offence of emitting smoke from a chimney in a smoke control area with a civil penalty regime, which allows for the removal of the statutory defences that currently hinder enforcement. This will enable quicker, simpler and more proportionate enforcement at a local level against the emissions of smoke within a smoke control area (SCA).
• Give local authorities powers to address pollution from solid fuel burning on inland waterway vessels (for example, canal boats) in smoke control areas.
• Strengthen the offences in relation to the sale and acquisition of certain solid fuels for use in smoke control areas, by removing the limit on the fine for delivering unapproved solid fuels to a building in a smoke control area, and requiring retailers of solid fuels to notify customers that that it is illegal to buy unapproved fuel for use in a smoke control area unless burning in an approved appliance.
• Amendments to the Environmental Protection Act 1990 allow local authorities to take more substantive action against those who repeatedly emit smoke and endanger human health by extending the system of statutory nuisance to private dwellings in SCAs. Smoke from chimneys that causes a nuisance could result in a local authority issuing an abatement notice. Breaching such a notice is a criminal offence and could result in the payment of fine, as is already the case outside SCAs.

Environmental standards for vehicles

We are also introducing a new power for the government to compel vehicle manufacturers to recall vehicles and non-road mobile machinery if they are found not to comply with the environmental standards that they are legally required to meet. The government will also be able to set manufacturers a minimum recall level. This will enable the government to ensure polluting vehicles are removed from the road and to hold non-compliant manufacturers to account.

These measures complement ongoing actions on air quality that are being delivered alongside the Bill, such as:

• Introduction of new legislation to tackle emissions from solid fuel burning. Specifically, phasing out from 1 May 2021 the sale of the most polluting solid fuels for the purposes of domestic burning, enabling a transition to the cleanest fuels, and ensuring only the cleanest stoves are available for sale by 2022. This action is supported by an information campaign aimed at educating people about burning better and reducing harmful emissions. Campaign materials can be found at Burn better: Making changes for cleaner air.
• Introduction of regulations to reduce ammonia emissions from agriculture, which is a significant source of air pollution. This includes requirements to:
  • reduce ammonia emissions from urea fertilisers
  • rapidly incorporate manure into bare soil
  • use low-emission slurry / digestate spreaders
  • to cover slurry / digestate stores
• Development of a UK Best Available Technique mechanism to enhance how technical guidance for each industry sector is updated and reviewed. This underpins the industrial permitting regime by which emissions from industrial activities are strictly regulated by the Environment Agency.

Further information

The fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) target

In the Clean Air Strategy, the government committed to setting a new long-term target on air quality, in order to reduce exposure to fine particulate matter (PM_2.5). The Bill delivers on this key commitment by introducing a duty to set a target for PM_2.5.

The government is committed to evidence-based policy making, and will consider the WHO’s annual mean guideline level for PM_2.5 when setting the target, alongside independent expert advice, evidence and analysis on a diversity of factors – from the health benefits of reducing PM_2.5, to the practical feasibility and economic viability of taking different actions.

In setting ambitious air quality targets it is essential that due consideration is given to achievability and the measures required to meet them. At this stage, the full mix of policies and measures which would be required to meet an annual mean level of 10µg/m³ for PM_2.5 are not yet fully understood. However, at a minimum, we expect that meeting 10µg/m³ in cities would require policies such as a total ban on solid fuel burning in cities, alongside a reduction of traffic kilometres of up to 50%.

Reducing levels of PM_2.5 will require action from across government and all parts of society, which is why it is important to ensure everyone has the opportunity to input into the development of these targets. We are engaging with a broad range of experts, including the Air Quality Expert Group (AQEG) and the Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants (COMEAP), in order to ensure that air quality targets are based on the best available science, and the analysis is broadly supported by the expert community. We expect to publish a public consultation on proposed targets in early 2022.

The target level and achievement date will be developed during the target setting process and will follow in secondary legislation.

Transport and air pollution

Effective action to address air pollution requires action beyond transport, across all areas of government and society, as highlighted in our Clean Air Strategy. Additionally, we are already taking significant measures to reduce emissions from transport. We have put in place a £3.8 billon plan to reduce harmful emissions from road transport, and almost £2 billion of this has been invested in cycling and walking over this Parliament.

As part of the Prime Minister’s 10 Point Plan, the UK will end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030, ten years earlier than planned, and from 2035 all new cars and vans must be zero emissions at the tailpipe. The UK is on course to be the fastest G7 nation to decarbonise cars and vans, and we want to see other countries following our lead. The government has set out its strategies to reduce emissions across all conventional transport modes, including in the Transport Decarbonisation Plan, Road to Zero strategy, Maritime 2050 and the Clean Maritime Plan, the Aviation 2050 Green Paper and our forthcoming net zero aviation consultation. These have been supported by Gear Change – A Bold Vision for Cycling and Walking, Future of Mobility: Urban Strategy, the 2018 amendments to the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation and our recently published National Bus Strategy for England.

Raising awareness about the effects of air pollution on health

Defra makes air pollution information available through a range of channels, including the UK-Air website, twitter and telephone, and there are opportunities to sign up to email services for air pollution alerts and health advice.

We also inform a network of charities (for example, the Asthma UK and British Lung Foundation Partnership, British Heart Foundation, Cystic Fibrosis Trust, British Thoracic Society and others) when air pollution is forecast to be elevated so they can inform their subscribers and ensure information reaches the people who are most vulnerable. We remain committed to improving how we communicate air quality information, and to making better use of and giving better access to national and local data.

Public Health England (PHE) continues to support medical health professionals, including Directors of Public Health, to understand the links between air pollution and health. For example, PHE worked with NICE to develop a quality standard in 2017 on air pollution, and in 2020 PHE developed an online training module on air pollution as part of the ‘All Our Health framework’.

Supporting local authorities to reduce the health effects of air pollution

The Environment Bill will enable greater local action on air pollution by ensuring responsibility for tackling air pollution is shared across local government structures, local authority boundaries and with relevant public bodies. We are also strengthening the ability of local authorities to tackle smoke emissions from domestic solid fuel burning, which is a major source of fine particulate matter.

Any new burdens placed on local authorities through the air quality measures in this Bill will be funded by Defra as per the new burdens principle. £880 million has been made available to support local authorities who have been directed to reduce their nitrogen dioxide emissions to develop and implement local air quality plans and to support those impacted by these plans.

Local authorities also have access to the Air Quality Grant Programme, which provides funding to local authorities to tackle locally identified air pollution issues. An additional £6 million was added to the annual funding pot for local authorities in 2021/22. Part of this fund will be dedicated to improving public awareness in local communities about the risks of air pollution.

Reducing the effects on health for vulnerable populations

Children and those with health conditions which make them more vulnerable to health impacts from poor air quality, are impacted in multiple locations. While targeted action can be taken, for instance around schools, children will also be exposed at home, while travelling and during other activities.

Any action focused on children and other vulnerable groups needs to be part of a wider programme of action that seeks to take a systematic approach to improving air quality. That is the approach we have taken in the Clean Air Strategy, which will improve air quality for all. In addition, our Air Quality Grant Programme provides funding to local authorities to tackle locally identified air pollution issues, including around schools, and local authorities have discretionary powers to restrict car access to schools and enforce anti-idling laws.

We are currently working with Local Authorities to fundamentally review the Air Quality Strategy, which will include actions that focus on reducing the impacts to those most vulnerable to air pollution, including children.