Live Air Pollution Question House of Commons

his view that we want to live in a

country where women always have a

place to go where they need it.

Urgent question, Neil Parish. Thank

you. The question is to ask the

Secretary of State for environment,

food and rural affairs what steps

his department will be taking to

improve air quality after the High

Court ruling?

In July last year, we

publish the UK plan. Yesterday, the

High Court handed down judgment on

the challenge to that plan. The

judge dismissed two out of three

complaints. He found there was no

error in the government approach to

tackle concentration levels. The

National air quality and monitoring

underpin the plan fulfil

requirements. Birmingham,

Nottingham, Derby, Southampton and

Leeds were identified. The judge

found that measures taken were

sensible unlawful. We previously

considered it was appropriate to

take a pragmatic approach. I have

written to councils in November. It

was followed up by officials asking

councils to provide initial

information on the action undertaken

by 28 February. In view of the court

judgment, were happy to take a more

formal approach with them. I have

written to local authorities, asking

them to attend a meeting on 28

February to discuss the information

in their plans and whether there are

additional actions they can take. In

March, we will issue legally binding

directives. We will publish a

supplement of the 2017 plan by

October, drawing on the outcomes of

authorities' feasibility studies and

plans. This government is committed

absolutely to improving air quality

and we have pledged to be the first

generation to leave the environment

in a better state than we inherited

it. Later this year, we will publish

a comprehensive strategy setting out

strategies for tackling pollution

more broadly.

I believe you are

working hard to improve air quality

and this is not just about

legislation, it's about practical

actions to improve air quality. Are

you as minister getting enough

cooperation from other departments,

including money from Treasury, to

address this issue? Pollution costs

£16 billion per year and affects

People's lives. Does the Minister

agree that preventative action be

more cost-effective? Is the High

Court found the timetable was

sensible and rational, but not

enough leadership is being provided

regarding local authorities with

high air pollution levels. Does the

Minister agree with me that a new

clean air act would provide proper

leadership, whilst allowing local

authorities will autonomy to address

pollution levels they face at a

targeted local level. Past I welcome

that the government can be held to

account through the courts and in to

Parliament, does the Minister agree

with me that the judgment is to

focus on compliance? We need a more

detailed, wide-ranging and practical

air quality plan. Clean air should

be right, not a privilege. I believe

we need to hear much more from

government now, and speed up the

whole of our air.

It is important to

remember what we have achieved. To

remind the House, air pollution has

improved since 2010. Sulphur dioxide

emissions are down 60%. Volatile

organic compound emissions are down

by 9%. With investing to improve air

quality. We're investing £1 billion

in low emission vehicles. We have

set aside nearly half £1 billion to

help local authorities implement and

develop local air quality plans. We

continue to try and reduce emissions

in other ways. I will remind my

honourable friend that we intend to

end the sale of all new conventional

petrol cars and vans by 2040. He

knows we will be bringing forward a

conference of clear the strategy, in

particular I am absolutely focused

on domestic burning. We looking

forward to more responses regarding

wet wood and smoky coal. I agree

with him on particulate matter

preventative is useful stop councils

and government already have a lot of

powers, it is about being prepared

to make at times very difficult

decisions. That's why are urged the

leaders of the councils, including

the 122 yesterday, to really correct

this issue on behalf of the people

they represent and we represent. It

matters that we take direct local

action to ensure the future health

of our nation.

I am keen we make

timely progress.

We need succinct questions and

replies.

I've heard the response

from the Minister but the rally she

is yesterday the government plans

were ruled unlawful for the third

time in three years. Here we find

ourselves once again having to take

the government to court in order for

them to take any action on this

serious issue of public health. When

or air pollution is responsible for

around 40,000 premature deaths each

year with cardiovascular disease

accounting for 80% of all such

premature deaths. Research by the

British Heart Foundation found that

there are over 20 billion in

economic costs every year. Legal

limits were set out in an EU

directive from 2008. It poses the

question whether this Conservative

government can be trusted with our

environment. We are witnessing

ducking and diving. As the DEFRA

select committee has previously

stated, the situation has escalated

into a public health emergency. The

government attitude does not seem to

reflect the severity and urgency of

the situation. Yesterday, a press

statement appeared to try to spin

the court ruling is some sort of win

for the government and played on

responsibility for what is an

incredibly serious failure.

Difficult all the government that

provides the environment but do not

demonstrate action when it comes.

Given the matter has been taken out

of the government's hands in an

unprecedented step, does the

Minister recognise the chronic

failure of her department on this

issue? Will the Minister confirm

whether government plans to appeal

the latest ruling by the court and I

understand the leaders of local

authorities affected have been

invited to a workshop. Can the

Minister underlined what the purpose

of it will be and what support they

will be for cash-strapped local

authorities in delivering the

actions we now need to see?

As I

said to this House before and say

again today, I'd take this issue

seriously. I'm not surprised at the

Lady fails to mention it was the

Welsh Labour government in the

judicial review, the government

admitted the air plan to do not

satisfy legal requirements. Frankly,

the issue is not confined to the

Minister at the dispatch box today.

Present problems in the UK are

frankly a result of what happened

with the EU's failed emissions

testing regime. The irresponsible

actions of certain car manufacturers

and the rapid increase of diesel car

manufacturers since 2001, 21 other

EU member states are also breaching

air quality limits. I try not to

take a partisan approach on this but

I am fed up of the opposition simply

not accepting their part of the

responsibility. The last Labour

government incentivised diesel cars,

and I'm not saying that previous

Labour ministers didn't do things in

good faith. However as we have found

out through a Freedom of information

request, Labour ignored advice

diesel fumes were toxic. But they

pushed on on the basis of a lower

CO2 emissions. In response to the

other points, we do not intend to

appeal because the judgment stands

on a narrow issue where there are

areas with shorter term exceeding

these. We also asked them to do

that, we are now happy to now issue

legally binding directions that they

need is to take action on and we

will work with them, which is why

next week after asking them to

provide initial information and

plans and why we ask them to come to

London next week so we can go

through that in detail and talk

through the kinds of resources they

will need to ensure better air

quality for the citizens we all

represent.

Mr Speaker, good might

friend go back to colleagues across

governments to impress upon them

this is not only an issue of

fundamental social justice for

poorer citizens but about putting

the UK in a strong position in terms

of our economy because clean-air is

a business advantage and we don't

want to fall behind them

Netherlands, Norway and Scotland who

are looking to ban diesel petrol

cars. Let's make sure that England

is in the forefront, socially just

and globally competitive on this

issue.

My friend will be aware that

government is working together to

improve the air quality we have. He

will recognise their pollution has

improved significantly since 2010,

why we are working with local

authorities to provide solutions.

Mentioning Scotland, the Scottish

Government are working on aspects of

introducing a lower emission zone.

The situation in Glasgow there is

serious and I'm sure the Scottish

Government with the support of SNP

MPs will make sure to have effective

solutions.

Three High Court cases

lost, how critical does this

situation needs to get for the

government to act? I appreciate the

Minister's words, all local

authorities now have action plans

and we have set more stringent air

quality targets than the rest of the

UK and are the first country in

Europe to legislate for this.

Perhaps I can help her out and meet

her because she knows the work I

have been doing with the aviation

noise authority and making sure it's

independent. I wonder whether she

will consider pollution is taken

into consideration and part of the

remit, I have set up a authority in

our constituency to make sure

airlines follow guidelines. Will she

ensure the aviation authority is

truly independent and monitoring of

pollution is also within its re-met?

She now has the opportunity to

breathe.

We all have the opportunity

to breathe clean air here thanks to

the excellent work of the House.

Talking about the aviation of the

ready, I'm not the transport

Minister, but no doubt we will

continue to want to reduce emissions

from aviation and that's why we are

working with other countries who

have already instigated some

elements on that. Regarding

Scotland, she'll be aware I think of

the Glasgow area were at the moment,

compliance is with the legal limits

is not predicted until 2026. The

money we invest in England have

consequences for the Barnett

Formula, that will help Scotland

achieve her targets. I will ask her

to perhaps contact the transport

ministers to discuss the other

matters she was deliberating on.

Can

I well, my friends proactively work

on air quality, including in Dudley?

And urge her to work closely with

the local authorities to ensure that

our air is clean and safe.

I thank

him for that, Dudley is one of the

areas named. I've already been in

conversation with Andy Street, the

mayor for the West Midlands, very

ambitious on plans to make these

improvements and I look forward to

meeting the leader for Dudley

Council next week.

If the UK leaves

the EU, the commission and ECJ lose

their role in monitoring and

enforcing these are pollution

standards. In November, the

Environment Secretary told my

committee he would consult on a new

body to feel about governance gap

early in the New Year. When will we

see that consultation? Will the body

be in place before exit state and

will it have higher environmental

standards which is what the

secretary says he wants, lower

standards which is what the Brexit

Brigade once, awful regularly --

awful regular treat alignment with

the EU?

The House already passed

this. We've already put in place

legislation why is the targets for

2020 and 2030 on the pollutants.

This government has already acted

labour legislation and I'm pleased

it has been endorsed. The

consultation will be forthcoming

soon, I am conscious that people who

are eager to see this in the

meantime will not be relying on the

B EU to help with air quality. She

will be aware of many measures

including the new bypass in her

constituency which officials believe

will be the solution to improving

air quality for the people of

Wakefield. The ASICs corridor in my

constituency is amongst one of the

most congested and polluted roads in

the country -- the A six.

What

conversation has the Minister had to

alleviate congestion and improve

air-quality?

The department has been

active and the government has one of

the largest transport investment

programmes for many decades. I'm not

particularly aware of the road to

which he refers but I'm confident

the Department for Transport will

be. One of the things we have done

with the clean air fund is to make

sure air-quality is a key criteria

in assessing our fancies in the

future.

In Greater Manchester like

in other areas, the real issue in

terms of nitrogen oxides is heavy

goods vehicles and old buses. We

have to begin to think about a bus

scrappage scheme, how will the

Minister respond?

The good news is

we'd already invested £89 million in

helping authorities to convert their

buses, another 40 million was added.

When I went to visit the councillors

involved in Manchester some time

ago, they will use the powers,

they've indicated they are likely to

use them under the act to make sure

they can do them on scheduling.

Requiring the buses to be Euro six

compliant, which is why we have been

funding councils around the country

to make that transition.

By how much

will air pollution be cut with the

ban on the sale of petrol and diesel

vehicles by 2040?

The expectation of

the targets we have legislated for

is that the impacts of air pollution

will be halved by 2030. One of the

reasons for indicating we will end

the sale of conventional petrol

diesel cars by that date is to give

a strong message to manufacturers.

We have seen a response already by

the fact a number of manufacturers

are saying they. The production of

such cars by the end of this decade.

Good news not only for the people of

the UK but across Europe and the

wider world.

Mr Speaker, for the

last seven years, the UK has been in

breach of EU limits on toxic

pollutants are links to respiratory

and cardiovascular conditions, as

well as stunted lung growth in young

children. It's no use telling the

parents of a seven-year-old that

things will improve by 2030, so can

we see greater urgency, more

resources and action now, and

holding up their hands and admitting

when they've got it wrong?

She will

be talking to Lesley Griffiths in

other Welsh Labour government

because of the Welsh government,

it's a vault issue. They contributed

part of the 2017 air-quality plan

which they recognised a few months

later wasn't good enough and are

going to do more -- it's a vault

issue. That is why at national

level, we are taking measures, in

terms of fleets turnover and

incentives about moving to the

cleanest diesel possible for those

who still wants to use those cars in

the interim. Also measures like

company car taxation increases. We

are taking matters but it is not the

usual practice that the UK

Government will order the Welsh

government to do something that is

devolved. I'm sure she will work

with her colleagues in Cardiff to

make sure her citizens are better

represented when it comes to making

the case for air-quality with the

Welsh government.

Older vehicles are

the most polluting and tend to be

owned by SMEs or people on low

incomes. Well my friend look at the

potential for a vehicle scrappage

scheme, not just buses but also cars

and lorries, so we had actually get

the worst polluting vehicles off the

road quicker?

In regards to the

air-quality plan, we issued a

consultation on mitigation measures

and potential scrappage scheme is

part of that. We are considering

responses to that and will report

back to the House shortly.

Yesterday, I sat here listening to

the Prime Minister 's response to my

question. I was very surprised at

the gap between the briefing the

Prime Minister has been given from

death row, albeit at short notice --

from DEFRA. And what I was reading

from the newsfeeds. Will the

Minister apologised to me and to the

House for the briefing to the prime

ministers that implies the judgment

was more winners than losers when it

is quite clear that the government

has been found to be acting

unlawfully and so badly, that the

court is taking over DEFRA's role in

implementing the legislation?

I'm

afraid she is simply incorrect, the

judge dismissed challenges about our

approach to air-quality. He said the

approach we took, when writing to

councils will ask November when

asking for issue is how we can help

to improve air quality in those

local authorities, the judge said

urging an encouraging wasn't

sufficient and we should issue

legally binding directions. That is

what the Prime Minister reflected to

the House yesterday and what we'll

be doing. I encourage her to work

with the Mayor of London, already

with substantial funding and is

using it in order to start deploying

cleaner buses and other aspects of

the shift within London. Frankly he

needs to accelerate his programme

and I encourage her to work with him

in doing that, building on the plans

by my friend, the Right Honourable

member for Uxbridge.

Can I welcome

the energy and resources which the

government is applying to these

issue, particularly the clean bus

fund which will see a fleet of

electric vehicles serving Harrogate

and Knaresborough. Can I ask

specifically that all local

authorities are as committed in

solving this issue as she is? Not my

experience so far.

My friend was a

Treasury Minister when working on

the air-quality plan and he is as

committed to making these

improvements. I fully recognise some

of these issues are politically

difficult. That is why I've been

meeting councillors from those

authorities to say time cannot wait

in order to have effective local

solutions. My friend made sure that

we have finances from government in

order to tackle this issue. Those

finances will be deployed.

A Liberal

Democrat competition! Layla Moran.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I'm grateful

for the ministers offered to meet

with me to discuss her plan for

Oxford.

Coogee confirm there is extra money?

I know they have been trying

already. -- could see confirm.

I

have written to all MPs yesterday

affected by the legal ruling, to

make what we were doing already

legally binding on councils to

cooperate. I'm looking forward to

meeting the leader next week.

They're looking at certain proposals

which include widening

pedestrianisation in the city

centre, in order to tackle

challenges. I want to know what kind

of resources they may need. I think

we have the powers already. It could

be that we just need to work through

the details of the plan.

Would my

right honourable friend give us more

detail about the government is doing

to support renewable technology in

order to secure the future of clean

energy in the UK?

In addition to the

£3.5 billion we're investing to

tackle air-quality on a modal shift

in transport, were massively

increasing incentives for councils

to deploy the kind of infrastructure

needed to support growth in the use

of electric vehicles. There is about

£1 billion allocated in grants for

people who want to buy such

vehicles. Were legislating through

Parliament at the moment on the

requirement that in future we will

have fuel stations that will also

provide electric infrastructure so

that people can charge their cars,

not just fill them with petrol and

diesel.

As chair of my party's

backbench DEFRA committee, this is

not good enough. This is a national

health emergency. Recent estimates

show that a million people could die

by 2040. She must act now with

manufacturers, local authorities and

everyone else.

I welcome the support

from the Member for Huddersfield to

get local authorities working on

this. We have been in

correspondence, we have recently

funded 350 buses in the west

Yorkshire combined authority.

Clearly there is an opportunity for

new busses to be deployed in the

worst traffic hotspots. I look

forward to meeting the leaders of

local authorities next week.

Me I

thank the Minister for meeting with

me a couple of weeks ago, to discuss

specific health issues. I agree

local leadership is needed. My

question today is she has mentioned

the new legislation. I think it is

not going far enough and so I ask

again, while the Minister consider

introducing legislation for

supermarkets and public car parks to

provide electric charging points?

I

had a constructive meeting with the

honourable lady recently. I visited

the town of Bath last year. I take

on board her point and I will

discuss it with the Minister of

transport.

Oxford was excluded from

the list because only 3% of

monitoring sites were included. Does

the government now accept that

decision was wrong? As the first

British city to commit to a zero

emission zone, will ye really need

the powers of resources she

mentioned.

The powers were granted

years ago. Building of what she

said, the judge yesterday upheld the

fact that our modelling fulfilled

our legal requirements. Local air

monitoring does not comply with

legislation under which we are bound

to do that. But I'm pleased that

Oxford are considering wider

pedestrianisation in their city

centre and look forward to

discussing that in more detail next

week. Have had the powers already,

they can get on with this and I

encourage them to do so as quickly

as possible.

Are some grateful to

the Minister further funding she is

given to cash-strapped local

authorities like Bristol for

consultation, I would like to move

further and think of the children at

school and one of the worst

polluting areas in the centre of

Bristol. Will see consider now

urgently a scrappage scheme for cars

and other vehicles such as taxis and

buses?

I have met the honourable

lady on this issue of air-quality

before. I have had direct

discussions with Bristol City

Council. Funding has gone in to help

the take-up of electric vehicles and

busses. I would suggest that Bristol

was making good progress, they are

one of the councils we mandated last

year to come forward with action.

They are on track with process. I

look forward to receiving final

considerations from them later this

year.

After eight years of court

cases, I find the Minister's

minimalistic approach quite

staggering. Why are the government

investing in a new generation of

dirty diesel trains?

As my

honourable friend, the real

minister, said, we are also going to

end the use of diesel only trains by

2040. That's given a clear steer to

procure a sand operators, on the

basis that they tend to invest in 15

years cycles. I'm conscious our

electrification programme was

considerably higher. I seem to

recall that in the Labour government

between 1997 and 2010, the achieved

13 miles. For them to be lecturing

us today about these issues... We

have been investing to fix the

problems they left behind.

Three

years after the story broke, how is

the government holding Volkswagen to

account for its emissions scandal?

We are holding Volkswagen to

account. I would suggest to the

honourable gentleman that one of the

challenges of how the EU operates in

this regard is it as a matter for

the German government to be the

regulator of Volkswagen and through

the European Commission is how we

hold Volkswagen to account directly.

I'm pleased they have come forward

with their wider group to do some of

the retrofitting of vehicles in

terms of software updates to correct

what we did. Frankly, the behaviour

by Volkswagen and their chief

executives was a disgrace. The money

they used to fund the effects of

diesel fumes on primates and humans

is