The Government has been told it must publish its plan to clear up the country’s air after losing a High Court bid to delay its release.
Courts had previously set a deadline of 24 April to publish a draft report on how it will tackle illegal levels of nitrogen dioxide pollution, but ministers asked to delay its release until after the general election in June.
They cited “purdah” rules, which limits what the Government can announce during election periods.
The High Court, however, said that purdah did not override legal obligations to clean up the air, and ordered for the draft report to be published on 9 May.
The final whitepaper is due to be published on 31 July.
According to NHS estimates, poor air quality is responsible for 40,000 premature deaths across the country every year and the situation has, according to the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs committee become a “public health emergency”.
Environmental lawyers ClientEarth – which originally began legal proceedings after the UK exceeded EU NOx limits – claimed that 37 out of 43 regions are in breach of legal limits at present.
A Government spokesman told BusinessCar it is “considering the judgement”.
Reacting to the judgement, ClientEarth CEO James Thornton, said: “We are delighted with the ruling. We cannot afford more dither and delay from the Government. Rather than appeal this decision, they need to get on and produce their plans to bring down air pollution as soon as possible. “The judge agreed with us that this is a matter of public health, not politics.”
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, welcomed the outcome: “I am pleased that the Government will now have to face its responsibilities sooner rather than later. Ministers were dragged kicking and screaming to face the huge scale of this health crisis, but rather than take immediate action to protect the public they deliberately used the election as a smokescreen to hold back their plan.”
Khan added: “I hope that after this appalling delay, this Government delivers a strong plan to finally get a grip on this issue and urgently introduces a diesel scrappage fund to rid our streets of the dirtiest cars, and provide financial incentives to encourage people to buy the cleanest vehicles.”
