Pollution control - air quality

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Pollution control - air quality

The National Air Quality Strategy

In 1997 the Government established a National Air Quality Strategy (NAQS) in response to requirements of the Environment Act 1995. This made it clear that good air quality was considered to be consistent with the principles of sustainable development and essential to the creation of an external environment in which individuals and communities can thrive.

An essential component of the strategy was the setting of Air Quality Standards for certain pollutants, based on the findings and recommendations of the Expert Panel on Air Quality Standards (EPAQS). This group examined the scientific and medical evidence in relation to each pollutant in order to set a relevant health based standard. The standards were adopted by the Department of the Environment Transport and the Regions (DETR) for the NAQS and thus form the context in which the review of air quality is being carried out.

The Air Quality Regulations require every district, unitary and metropolitan authority to undertake an Air Quality Review and Assessment in its locality. Where air quality objectives are unlikely to be met, Air Quality Management Areas must be declared and action plans developed in pursuit of the objectives.

In simple terms, local authorities are required to review the current levels of prescribed air pollutants and make predictions as to their expected levels by the end of the year 2010. These predictions then have to be compared with the prescribed objectives. Assessments must look at all local sources of each pollutant and examine the effects that national policy will have in reducing levels. For example, the predicted reductions in car exhaust pollutants due to increasingly more stringent exhaust emission controls on vehicles and changes in fuel specification have to be taken into account.

Air quality in the UK has generally continued to improve since 1997 when the first Air Quality Strategy was adopted. The Evaluation of the Air Quality Strategy, published in 2005, indicated that, between 1990 and 2001, policies have resulted in a marked decline in concentrations of air pollutants, with an estimated reduction of more than 4,200 premature deaths and 3,500 hospital admissions per annum. Preliminary indications are that nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter and ozone in some of our major urban areas and alongside busy roads, levels are not declining as fast as expected and trends are flattening or even reversing.

Local Air Quality Management

The Environment Act 1995 introduced a new duty of air quality management as part of the national strategy to control and improve air quality in the United Kingdom. The Air Quality Strategy for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, published in 2000 detailed the Government's plans to improve and check ambient air quality in the United Kingdom in the medium term. It also sets a series of objectives and the dates by which those objectives are to be achieved for the protection of human health from eight main air pollutants. One of these, ozone, is a trans-boundary pollutant and as a result has been designated for control at national and European level. The other seven pollutants 1, 3 butadiene, benzene, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, lead and PM10 (fine particles) are more localised in terms of their sources and have consequently been designated for control at both national and local level.

Under section 88(1) of the Environment Act 1995, local authorities are required to submit regular reports on local air quality to DEFRA. The council has and continues to undertaken an annual local air quality review of air quality as part of the Government's National Air Quality Strategy (NAQS).

Previous reports are availalble below.