Asked by Lord Dubs To ask Her Majesty’s Government what
short-term action they propose to take to improve air quality in
Britain. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Gardiner of Kimble)
(Con) My Lords, we have committed £3.5 billion for air
quality and cleaner transport. We are...Request free trial
Asked by
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To ask Her Majesty’s Government what short-term action they
propose to take to improve air quality in Britain.
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Gardiner of
Kimble) (Con)
My Lords, we have committed £3.5 billion for air quality
and cleaner transport. We are helping local authorities to
tackle pollution hotspots and have allocated £255 million
to accelerate local action to meet concentration limits.
Ninety-two per cent of monitored roads will meet limits
next year. We are investing in vehicle retrofitting,
ultra-low emission vehicles, cycling and walking, and
implementing tougher real driving emissions tests. Next
year, our clean air strategy will outline how we will
tackle air pollution more widely.
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(Lab)
My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister. However, will he
confirm that, according to the United Nations, air quality
in 44 of our towns and cities is such that it is too
dangerous to breathe? According to the Royal College of
Physicians, last year, the health impact of poor air
quality was £20 billion. It is estimated that 50,000 people
die each year from poor air quality, of whom 9,000 are in
London. Surely we have to do more than the Minister has
said the Government will do?
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My Lords, the Government take this seriously because we are
well aware of the health issues. This issue affects many
countries; as the noble Lord will know, 17 other EU member
states have the same problem with nitrogen dioxide. We are
working very closely with local authorities, particularly
those in which we need to make more rapid progress, to
escalate the issue, because we are well aware of the health
consequences. It is a very serious issue.
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(Lab)
My Lords, will the Minister explain to the House whether
there are ongoing discussions with motor manufacturers in
the United Kingdom, particularly those—there are some—that
offer only vehicles with diesel engines while exporting to
other parts of the world with petrol engines in exactly the
same vehicles? Is it not clear, particularly after what my
noble friend said, that oxides of
nitrogen and other particulate matter from diesel engines
are the biggest single threat to health in this country,
particularly among children, who go to and from school and
play and shop at street level, therefore risking damage to
their health?
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My Lords, I entirely agree with a lot of what the noble
Lord said. That is precisely why this country intends to
act and why we have invested in the ultra-low emissions
vehicle regime. Importantly, we are in discussions with
motor manufacturers because one of the problems we have had
with nitrogen dioxide is that the driving emissions tests
have been on a laboratory, not a real driving, basis. From
September this year, all new cars will have to meet
emissions limits in real driving conditions.
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(Con)
My Lords, does my noble friend agree that diesel cars—I
must confess that I drive one—are extremely important in
rural areas and for people who drive long distances? Will
he ensure that any future false reporting by manufacturers
will be penalised, so that the vehicle driver is not left
to pick up the pieces? Surely this is an area in which he
can work very closely with BEIS.
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My Lords, my noble friend makes a very strong point.
Manufacturers undoubtedly have a responsibility. What
happened with Volkswagen was a disgrace. Clearly, we do not
seek to punish those drivers who in good faith went for
diesel, but there was a dash for diesel, which we all now
very much regret.
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(LD)
My Lords, the Minister referred to the Government’s sum of
£255 million to improve air quality. Is he aware that
Transport for London has a budget of £875 million to
improve air quality in London alone? Does he therefore
accept that £255 million is a woefully inadequate sum if
local authorities are to be enabled to improve air quality
and the Government are truly to improve air quality across
the whole country?
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My Lords, I think I should repeat the first line of my
reply: we have committed £3.5 billion for air quality and
cleaner transport. We are helping 28 local authorities that
need to accelerate their plans so that we can specifically
tackle those hotspots. I reassure the noble Baroness that
we are very much concentrating on this matter.
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(GP)
My Lords, since 2014 there have been 27 air pollution
episodes. That does not sound particularly bad until you
realise that one episode lasted 10 days, 300 people died
and 1,600 people were admitted to hospital. There is
currently no action plan in place for Public Health
England. Will the Minister ask it to put one in place, as
it does for hot and cold weather?
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My Lords, obviously this is a matter on which we have to
collaborate and we are, with both the Department of Health
and the Department for Transport. Another issue for
collaboration is that there are times when half the air
pollution in this country comes from abroad. I suspect we
send some to them. This is why international collaboration
is also very important.
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(CB)
My Lords, the Minister spoke about working with local
authorities. Will he be a little more specific about what
the Government may outline for local authorities that have
schools in very high traffic pollution areas, some of them
with playing fields underneath motorway flyover areas?
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My Lords, this is very important. The City of Westminster,
for example, is concentrating on stopping idling engines
outside schools. This is also an area where, under the
Environment Act 1995, local authorities have duties to
review and assess local air quality. There are provisions
around schools, so this should and can be addressed.
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(Lab)
My Lords, does the Minister accept Defra’s own modelling,
which shows that the most effective measure to reach
compliance with the law in the shortest possible time is to
introduce charges for polluting cars entering designated
clean air zones? Why do the Government not act on their own
best advice and expect all polluting local authorities to act
on it?
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My Lords, under our arrangements in the air quality plan to
do with nitrogen dioxide in particular, there are all sorts
of ways local authorities can take action, and they have
ability to create clean air zones. That is on the statute
book and is something we are working on with local
authorities. Clearly there will be highly localised solutions
to some of these problems with nitrogen dioxide.
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(Con)
My Lords, is it worth reflecting on the fact that the last
Labour Government cut the duty on diesel and encouraged us
all to buy diesel cars? Will my noble friend not take
lectures from Labour on what we should be doing?
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My Lords, we now have to deal with a very serious issue. We
are not compliant only on nitrogen dioxide; we are compliant
in all other areas of air quality. This is one that we need
to address. My noble friend is absolutely right that this
problem has come about because we dashed for diesel. It is
diesel vehicles that have caused the problems with nitrogen
dioxide that we are now addressing.
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