The Environmental Audit Committee has published its report on Air Quality. The report calls on government to:
- Prioritise action across central Government by putting improving air quality in the Defra Business Plan, and set up a Cabinet Office lead Ministerial Group to oversee delivery of a new cross government air quality strategy;
- Engage with local authority leaders clearly to set out the risks of failing to act to improve air quality, and join up thinking across local authority departments so they all contribute to solving this problem;
- Establish a national framework of low emissions zones to help local authorities reduce pollution from traffic;
- Ensure that thinking on air quality is central to public health reforms that will transfer public health functions to local authorities;
- Launch a public awareness campaign to drive air quality up the political agenda and inform people about the positive action they could take to reduce emissions and their exposure to these.
