PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Air Pollution (10 November 2015)

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much her Department has spent on measures to improve air quality in each year since 2010-11; how much funding has been allocated to air quality improvement in the 2015-16 financial year; and what estimate she has made of the funding needed until 2020 to bring air pollution levels to within legal limits.

Asked by:
Kerry McCarthy (Labour)

The Government has committed over £2 billion since 2011 in measures to improve air quality. As road transport is the dominant source of pollution most of the funding has been allocated from the Department for Transport. Defra’s contribution has taken the form of payments made under the Air Quality Grant Scheme to support local authority action on air pollution. Total payments made under the Scheme in each year are as follows:

2010-11	£2,361,000
2011-12	£3,078,745
2012-13	£3,100,000
2013-14	£1,000,000
2014-15	£1,000,000
2015-16 (allocated)	£500,000

Future funding will depend on the outcome of the current Spending Review.

The government has recently consulted on draft national and local Air Quality Plans for the UK. The finalised plans will be submitted to the European Commission by 31 December.

Answered by:
Rory Stewart (Independent)
16 November 2015