This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Air quality guidance for local councils
06/02/2003
New guidance to help improve air quality in Scotland was
announced today.
An Addendum to the Air Quality Strategy for England,
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland sets out the
background to the new air quality objectives for benzene,
carbon monoxide, particles and polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbons (PAHs), which were introduced last year.
In addition, air quality policy and technical guidance
documents have been extensively revised and updated to
coincide with the start of the next round of air quality
reviews and assessments by local authorities early in
2003.
These documents provide comprehensive advice to
authorities to help them with their local air quality
management responsibilities.
Deputy Environment Minister Allan Wilson said:
"The Scottish Executive is working to ensure a cleaner
and safer environment for all. Improving air quality
enhances both the environment and the health of Scotland's
people.
"Our understanding of air pollution and its effects on
human health is advancing constantly and this is reflected
in the Addendum to the Air Quality Strategy.
"The revised policy and technical guidance will be a
valuable tool for local authorities in their continuing
efforts to improve air quality in their areas."
In September 2001 the Executive, together with Defra and
the other devolved administrations, published a
consultation paper proposing tighter objectives for
benzene, carbon monoxide and particles, and a new objective
for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).
These proposals were the same throughout the UK except
for particles, where a tougher particles objective was
proposed for Scotland than elsewhere, because air quality
is generally better here than in other parts of the UK. A
less stringent objective was proposed for London for the
opposite reason.
The consultation finished in December 2001 and the
Executive introduced new objectives, with the exception of
PAHs, through the Air Quality (Scotland) (Amendment)
Regulations 2002.
Separate arrangements have been made in England and
Wales, and an announcement is due to be made later this
year in Northern Ireland. The Addendum to the Strategy has
been published to summarise and provide background on the
new objectives.
The strategy requiremes local authorities to review and
assess air quality in their areas. Where this exercise
shows that any of the objectives in the Strategy are
unlikely to be met by the prescribed dates, the authority
must declare an Air Quality Management Area and draw up an
action plan outlining how they intend to work towards the
objectives.
The first round of reviews and assessments was completed
at the end of 2002. A new round has now commenced and to
coincide with this the associated policy and technical
guidance, which was last updated in March 2000, has been
extensively revised to take account of new information and
the experiences of local authorities during the first
round.
workshop for local authorities, run by the University
of the West of England and hosted by the Scottish
Executive, was held on January 29 to explain the background
to the revised guidance and the new round of reviews and
assessments.