Clear Air

The impact of dangerous and illegal levels of air pollution on the health of millions of people across the country troubles me. I want to see legally binding targets matching those set by the World Health Organization (WHO) to bring air pollution down below harmful levels.

I am concerned about the Retained EU Law Act, which allows Ministers to amend or appeal all legislation carried over from our membership of the EU with nearly no parliamentary scrutiny, puts at risk hard-fought rights and protections for the environment and diminishes democratic scrutiny and accountability.

As you may know, Schedule 1 of the Act lists the retained EU laws intended for revocation at the end of 2023. These include regulations that lay down a common format for national air pollution control programmes.

I remain completely opposed to the enormous powers Ministers have given themselves through this legislation. I share concerns about a process of mass deregulation. The laws at risk are not cumbersome red tape but rights and protections British people rightly expect.

We do need to establish the future status of laws carried over from our time in the EU, but I fundamentally disagree with the Government’s approach to doing this. I therefore supported amendments made to the legislation by the House of Lords that sought to enable Parliament to have a say in deciding what happens to these laws that affect our lives. Unfortunately, the Government repeatedly used its majority to vote down these amendments in the House of Commons and the Bill passed into law without the important safeguards they sought to provide.

More broadly, I have long supported the Labour’s idea to legislate for a Clean Air Act to deliver the legal right to breathe clean air, to implement statutory monitoring to make sure that WHO clean air guidelines are adhered to, and to ensure that local air quality standards keep up with the developing science.

The Government’s targets on air quality are weaker than the current WHO guidelines and I believe they are insufficiently ambitious.