Ministers misled UK public when scrapping air quality regulations

Ministers have been accused of misleading the public after documents revealed they ignored officials’ advice when scrapping key air quality regulations, reports the Guardian. 

On 31 December, two key air quality regulations dropped off the statute book under the Retained EU Law (REUL) Act. The rules being revoked are regulations 9 and 10 of the National Emission Ceiling (NEC) regulations, which set legally binding emission reduction commitments for five key air pollutants.

Officials pointed out that by revoking the regulations with no replacement, there would ‘no longer be a legal requirement to publish a UK wide document on emission policies under consideration by all UK administrations’, which they warned would make ‘tracking or setting our progress towards UK wide emission targets difficult’. They added there would no longer be clear action after a failure to achieve an emission reduction target.

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