My Lords, it is unusual, I suggest, in public policy to find an area where the case for faster action is as barn-door obvious as it is in this instance. We have a set of impacts with strongly negative consequences. We have a set of practical actions that would enable us to do something about that, and the benefits of so doing would be rapid—in
some cases, almost immediate. That is not my judgment but that of Professor Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer, whose 2022 annual report—published just before Christmas and which, unfortunately, did not get the scrutiny and focus it deserved—concentrates on air pollution.
8.15 pm
The report makes the following three points. First, according to the Government’s UK Health Security Agency:
“The mortality burden of air pollution in England is estimated to be between 26,000 and 38,000 a year”.
Does the Minister accept that as the UK Health Security Agency’s estimate? If so, does he also accept the following judgment of the Chief Medical Officer in his report:
“In the last decade improvements in PM2.5 have stalled, and these especially need attention”?
It seems to me that the argument about modelling is to some extent a circular one. It goes, “It’s taken us a very long time to do anything and therefore, if we carry on at the current rate of knots, it will take us until 2040.” But that is precisely the point: we do not have to carry on at the current rate of knots. Secondly, the CMO’s report sets out a set of clear and practical steps that show that reducing PM2.5 is indeed the art of the possible.
The third salient point is that the benefits of doing so would be very rapid indeed. The CMO’s report suggests that 30% of the reduction in mortality from reducing air pollution occurs in the first year, and 50% in years two to five. Let us think about that. A reduction of between 30% and 50% of up to 38,000 deaths a year would be an extraordinary gain for the people of this country. However, because, unlike the smog in the 1950s, we are dealing with something that is essentially invisible, at the proposed rate of knots primary school playgrounds, GP surgeries, shops and high streets will continue to have killer levels of pollution that will go unattended for years to come. Surely the Government should think again.