Lords Committee quiz Minister on UK's illegal levels of air pollution

The House of Lords EU Energy and Environment Sub-Committee has written to the Secretary of State, Rt Hon Michael Gove MP, raising concerns over the UK Government's failure to implement EU air quality legislation and reduce harmful nitrogen dioxide levels.

On 17 May, the European Commission announced that it was referring the United Kingdom to the Court of Justice of the EU for significant and persistent exceedances of the nitrogen dioxide limit set out in EU legislation, and for failure to take appropriate measures to keep exceedance periods as short as possible.

On 13 June, the Sub-Committee took evidence from witnesses on the barriers there have been to the UK implementing the legislation and what the result of the referral to the Court of Justice might be.

Now the Sub-Committee have written to the Secretary of State, outlining their concerns. They highlight that poor air quality contributes to 40,000 early deaths a year, and that the air quality Directive has been in place for eight years, but  the Government has yet to produce an adequate, or legally compliant, plan to tackle this significant problem and nitrogen dioxide levels are still far higher than the legal limit. The Sub-Committee has asked for an explanation of why this is the case.

Given that the Court of Justice ruling is likely to come after the UK has left the EU, Members have asked the Secretary of State to explain whether the Government will still accept the judgement and pay any fine that might be imposed. Members also raise concern that both the legislative requirement to reduce nitrogen dioxide levels and the legal mechanism to enforce that requirement have come from the EU. In their letter, they ask how the Government will ensure standards are maintained post-Brexit.

Read the full letter here.