To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) amending the Quarry Regulations 1999 to ensure that (i) levels of PM10 and PM2.5 particulate emissions in quarries are (A) monitored and (B) controlled and (ii) risk assessments in relation to those particulate emissions are undertaken and (b) directing the Health and Safety Executive to introduce evidence-based standards for levels of air quality in quarries.
Answered on
20 December 2024
Under The Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations, environmental permits for quarries issued by local authorities must already include emission limit values, monitoring requirements and other controls for particulate matter and other air pollutants.
The Quarries Regulations 1999 require operators of quarries to take necessary measures to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that the quarry and its plant are designed, constructed, equipped, commissioned, operated and maintained in such a way that persons at work can perform the work assigned to them without endangering their own health and safety or the health and safety of others. The duty holder for the quarry is required to ensure that risks and exposure to harmful substances are adequately controlled.