Chamber and committees

Air quality in Scotland

Background

Air pollution is harmful to human health and the environment. Human activity is a major driver of poor air quality globally, particularly in towns and cities. Introducing measures to improve air quality can therefore deliver many benefits to Scotland's people and our environment.

Following the UK's exit from the European Union, Environmental Standards Scotland (ESS) was set up to monitor public bodies' compliance with their environmental obligations, including those relating to air quality.

On 29 September 2022, ESS published a report in response to the European Court of Justice's (ECJ) judgement that, across the UK, breaches of air quality limit values for nitrogen dioxide had been "systematic and persistent" between 2010 and 2017. The report provided recommendations to the Scottish Government of how they can meet their legal limits on nitrogen dioxide levels, including through changes to their monitoring, governance structures and local air quality management.

Read the Air Quality Investigation Improvement Report – Environmental Standards Scotland

The Scottish Government published an improvement plan in response to the ESS report. This set out what the Scottish Ministers propose to do in response to the recommendations in ESS's report. The improvement plan was laid in Parliament on 27 March 2023.

Consideration of Air quality

The Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee agreed to look at the wider issue of air quality in Scotland.

It considered:

• The policies and actions set out in the Scottish Government's 'Cleaner Air for Scotland 2 Strategy'
• The implementation and potential impact of Low Emissions Zones (LEZs) in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee
• Scotland's performance in relation to international best practise on air quality.

The Committee sought the views of a range of key stakeholders on these issues.

Report

Report on the Scottish Government's Air Quality Improvement Plan and wider air quality issues