CAMPAIGN RESPONSE: 28 January 2010

The Rt. Hon. Hilary Benn MP
Secretary of State
Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs
Nobel House
17 Smith Square
London SW1P 3JR

By email: hilary.benn@defra.gsi.gov.uk and euairquality@defra.gsi.gov.uk


28 January 2010


Dear Secretary of State

Secretary of State warned of need to take action after hourly limit value for NO2 breached today

Response to consultation on draft Air Quality Standards Regulations 2010 and Impact Assessment

Secretary of State reminded he would be in breach of statutory duties if Mayor of London removes WEZ without full and simultaneous offset of air quality impacts

I am writing on behalf of the cross-party Campaign for Clean Air in London (CCAL) to respond to the consultation on the transposition of Directive 2008/50/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2008 on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe (the Directive) which closes on 29 January 2010. Thank you for the opportunity to do so.

CCAL understands the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) intends to transpose the new Directive into English law under the draft Air Quality Standards Regulations 2010 (draft AQSR 2010). The consultation documents can be seen at:

http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/airquality-transposition/index.htm

Details of CCAL’s Mission and a list of its supporters can be found at www.cleanairinlondon.org.

CCAL supports strongly all the comments made by the ClientEarth and Environmental Protection UK in their responses to this consultation (except if in conflict with this letter in which case this letter prevails).

Summary

The current consultation takes place against a background of legal action and public concern over the UK’s failure to comply with air pollution deadlines it has known about since 1999. Awareness of the scale of the public health crisis is also spreading rapidly.

As you know, the European Commission launched legal action against the UK in January last year for breaching limit values for dangerous airborne particles (PM10) that entered into force in January 2005. On 11 December 2009, the European Commission rejected the UK’s application for a time extension until 11 June 2011 to comply with these obligations in London. London is the only place in the UK still in breach of the daily limit value for PM10. The government has said it wishes to reapply for a time extension. However, when doing so, the government will need to address a consequence of it changing the monitoring of PM10 (which reduced the number of reported daily exceedances in Marylebone Road last year from 110 to 39 days i.e. just over the legal limit of 35) i.e. that widespread areas of the south east UK are likely to breach the daily limit value during warm years (such as 2003 or 2006). Please see the excellent presentation given by David Green of King’s College London in December 2009 which explains this important change:

http://www.cleanairinlondon.org/_attachments/4426048/CCAL%20080%20D%20Green%20at%20RSC%20December%202009.pdf

Limit values for annual mean and hourly concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) entered into force on 1 January 2010 to protect public health further. With London having the highest mean concentrations of NO2 of any capital city in western, or eastern, Europe, it is shocking but not surprising that London breached - in less than two weeks - the hourly limit value of 18 exceedances in a whole year (in Kensington and Chelsea, Lambeth and Wandsworth). The government’s main monitoring site for London, in Marylebone Road, breached that limit value today for the first time by reporting 25 exceedances in the year to date (after 18 yesterday for the year to date). See:

http://www.londonair.org.uk/london/asp/publicstats.asp?statyear=2010&mapview=NO2b®ion=0&site=MY1&postcode=&la_id=&objective=All

CCAL hereby formally brings the breach of the hourly limit value for NO2 in London to your attention, as the responsible Secretary of State, and requests and requires that you take urgent action as you are required to do to ensure full compliance with this standard. These standards have the same legal force as those for PM10 that you are also required to meet this year.

The primary purpose of this letter is to respond formally to Defra’s consultation on the draft AQSR 2010 and associated Impact Assessment. CCAL has a number of detailed comments on these documents which are set out in later in this letter. However, CCAL’s general impression is that the draft AQSR 2010 have been faithfully transposed except in the most important areas where the government has failed to transpose the most essential elements and/or weakened the wording to make it ambiguous e.g. which pollutants are covered, what standards must be met, where they apply, when they must be met and what happens if a time extension is obtained. Furthermore, the draft AQSR 2010 omit completely the need for penalties that are ‘effective, proportionate and dissuasive’ if the Secretary of State fails to comply fully with his obligations. The Impact Assessment quantifies the risks of long term exposure to particulate air pollution represented by PM2.5 but then fails to accept advice from its own scientific advisory body to include in any such report a wider interval up to 15% (i.e. relative risk 1.15).

In CCAL’s view, these are serious and unacceptable failings which must be addressed before the AQSR 2010 are finalised. The proposed transposition of the Directive into the draft AQSR 2010 does not yet meet the minimum requirements of the Directive.

In CCAL’s considered view, Defra’s assessment of the impacts of transposing the Directive, as set out in the consultation Impact Assessment, is not thoroughly considered. CCAL has therefore provided you with additional information that it thinks must be considered i.e. herein and CCAL’s letter to the Environmental Audit Committee dated 13 December 2009 (attached) (which forms part of this submission).

CCAL wishes separately to bring to your attention that the Mayor of London would put the Secretary of State in breach of his statutory duty (to ensure that the daily limit value for PM10 is not exceeded having been attained in west London) if the Mayor removes the Western Extension of the Congestion Charging Zone (WEZ) without offsetting fully adverse air quality impacts. CCAL’s analysis shows the position very clearly and confirms the situation beyond reasonable doubt.

With the government and the Mayor failing in so many ways to comply with their duties to improve air quality, CCAL hereby requests and requires the government comply immediately and in full with its obligations to protect public health.   more »