To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Modelling of future PM2.5 in support of the Defra air quality target setting process and the Chair's summary to that report, what assessment he has made of the accuracy of the estimate that an annual average PM2.5 limit value of 10 ug m3 or higher would have been achieved across the UK, including central London, in 2020.
Answered on
26 October 2022
Monitoring data made available via the UK Air Archive (https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/data/) shows that levels above 10 µg/m3 were reported at a number of monitoring sites during 2020. Our proposed targets will drive action to reduce levels to 10 µg/m3 or below at all monitoring sites by 2040 as well as reducing population exposure by 35% (compared to 2018).