UK Inquiry Tracker

Tackling local air quality breaches

Public Accounts Committee Closed Inquiry

Opened: 6 Jun 2022 Closed: 14 Dec 2022 Parliament page

The UK has air quality targets which specify legal limits of major pollutants at a local and a national level. While emissions of most air pollutants have been falling in recent decades, air quality continues to cause significant health, economic and environmental risks, and the UK is not currently meeting … Read more

6 Recommendations

27 Conclusions

1 Report

1 Oral session

2 Letters

1 Event

Activity timeline 6 events

14 Dec
2022

Report published

Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Twenty second report from Session 2022-23

26 Oct
2022

Report published

Twenty-Second Report - Tackling local air quality breaches

20 Oct
2022

Correspondence

Joint correspondence from David Hill, Director General for Environment, Rural and Marine and Gareth Davies, Second Permanent Secretary of t…

17 Oct
2022

Correspondence

Joint correspondence from Gareth Davies Second, Permanent Secretary of the Department for Transport and David Hill Director General for Env…

27 Jun
2022

Oral evidence

Tackling local air quality breaches

27 Jun
2022

Formal meeting (oral evidence session) · The Grimond Room, Portcullis House

Tackling local air quality breaches

Oral evidence sessions 1 session

27 Jun 2022

View on parliament.uk

Tackling local air quality breaches

David Hill · Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Gareth Davies CB · Department for Business and Trade Nick Harris · National Highways

Reports 1 report · click to expand

Title	HC No.	Published	Items	Response
Twenty-Second Report - Tackling local air quality breaches	HC 37	26 Oct 2022	33	Responded

Recommendations & Conclusions

5 results

4 Recommendation Rejected

Twenty-Second Report - Tackling lo…

Although calculating an exact figure may be difficult, with Departments claiming it would be a...

Although calculating an exact figure may be difficult, with Departments claiming it would be a great deal of effort to produce something not necessarily precise, Government could do more to improve the transparency of cross-government public spending that has an … Read more

Government Response

The government disagrees with the recommendation, stating that the resource required to disaggregate spend driving air quality benefits across the variety of complex policies would be disproportionate, estimates produced would be misleading, and would not support accountability/transparency.

HM Treasury

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21 Conclusion Rejected

Twenty-Second Report - Tackling lo…

Government sees the relationship with local authorities as a partnership, and told us that it...

Government sees the relationship with local authorities as a partnership, and told us that it believes the programme will fail if it is seen to be a top-down programme done by national Government.29 However, local authorities are expected to follow … Read more

Government Response

The government disagrees with the need for a national communication campaign on Clean Air Zones, stating that local authorities are best placed to tailor communications to their communities, and that it has already provided significant support for local campaigns.

HM Treasury

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23 Conclusion Rejected

Twenty-Second Report - Tackling lo…

On the other hand, government has not taken the responsibility it should for national messaging...

On the other hand, government has not taken the responsibility it should for national messaging on the need for air quality measures. We asked Defra and DfT why Government had decided against a national communication campaign about the new charging … Read more

Government Response

HM Treasury

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25 Conclusion Rejected

Twenty-Second Report - Tackling lo…

The NAO reports that, by not tracking spend across its work on air quality, government...

The NAO reports that, by not tracking spend across its work on air quality, government risks being unable to evaluate the relative cost-effectiveness of its spending on the issue. The NAO highlighted the example of government’s preparations for EU Exit, … Read more

Government Response

The government disagrees with the recommendation to improve transparency of cross-government air quality spending, citing the disproportionate level of resources required and the uncertainties in the resulting estimates.

HM Treasury

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26 Conclusion Rejected

Twenty-Second Report - Tackling lo…

Defra and DfT wrote to us to provide a breakdown of funding through the Joint...

Defra and DfT wrote to us to provide a breakdown of funding through the Joint Air Quality Unit and the Air Quality & Industrial Emissions programme. They also provided a summary of cross-government initiatives that affect air quality; these include … Read more Defra and DfT wrote to us to provide a breakdown of funding through the Joint Air Quality Unit and the Air Quality & Industrial Emissions programme. They also provided a summary of cross-government initiatives that affect air quality; these include work by Defra and DfT, as well as the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, and the Department of Health and Social Care. They explained that while Defra attempts to anticipate and model what the long-term reductions in air pollutants as a result of other department’s policies and initiatives may be, their estimates tend to be subject to uncertainty because it is difficult to predict the level levels of uptake, and other factors that will influence how pollution is reduced in practice. They told us that, given how difficult it can be to determine the precise air pollution reductions associated with net zero policies and other important programmes 36 Q 54 37 C&AG’s Report, para 4 38 C&AG’s Report, para 1.16 39 Q 33 40 C&AG’s Report, para 1.18 41 Committee of Public Accounts, Achieving Net Zero: Follow up, Forty-First Report of Session 2021–22, HC 642, 2 March 2022 42 LAQ0004 Tackling local air quality breaches 13 such as active travel, it would be consequently challenging to assign any meaningful estimates of public expenditure on each component of action that results in air pollution emission reductions. They agree that it is important to have robust procedures in place to ensure they are accountable for how money is spent on programmes in each Department, but believe it would not be proportionate to maintain ongoing detailed tracking of the air quality components of policies affecting air pollution across government, especially if the resulting estimates were subject to uncertainties. They told us that their priority is to ensure that their respective policies dovetail to secure multiple benefits, and to estimate the real-world outcomes and bene Show less

Government Response

HM Treasury

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Government Response AI assessment · 22 of 6 classified

Accepted 7

Accepted in Part 1

Acknowledged 9

Rejected 5

Total 6 recs + 27 conclusions

Correspondence 2 letters

20 Oct 2022 Joint correspondence from David Hill, Director General for Environment, Rural and Marine and Gareth Davies, Second Permanent Secretary of the Department for Transport to Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, Deputy Chair of the Committee of Public Accounts, re Air Quality PAC: Follow-Up Response, dated 11 July 2022

Parliament page

17 Oct 2022 Joint correspondence from Gareth Davies Second, Permanent Secretary of the Department for Transport and David Hill Director General for Environment, Rural and Marine to Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, Deputy Chair, Committee of Public Accounts, re Air Quality PAC: Follow-up response regarding the publication of the 2021 Air Quality Annual Compliance Assessment, dated 29 September 2022

Parliament page