20.4 Assessment Methodology 20.4.1 Guidance 20.4.1.1 Air Quality Legislation
20.4.1.1.1 European Union Directives 18.
Air pollution can have adverse effects on the health of humans and ecosystems. European Union legislation forms the basis for UK air quality policy. The European Union Air Quality Framework Directive 96/62/EC on Ambient Air Quality Assessment and Management entered into force in 1996 (European Parliament 1996). Directive 96/62/EC and the first three daughter Objectives were combined to form the new European Union Directive 2008/50/EC (European Parliament 2008) on Ambient Air Quality and Cleaner Air for Europe, which came into force in June 2008.
20.4.1.1.2 United Kingdom Air Quality Strategy 19.
The 1995 Environment Act required the preparation of a national Air Quality Strategy which sets air quality standards for specified pollutants. The Act also outlined measures to be taken by local planning authorities in relation to meeting these standards and Objectives, which became the Local Air Quality Management (LAQM) system.
20.
The UK Air Quality Strategy was originally adopted in 1997 (Department of Environment 1997) and has been reviewed and updated to take account of the evolving European Union legislation, technical and policy developments and the latest information on health effects of air pollution. The strategy was revised and reissued in 2000 as the Air Quality Strategy for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions 2000). This was subsequently amended in 2003 (DETR 2003) and was last updated in July 2007 (Defra 2007).
20.4.1.1.3 Local Air Quality Management 21.
The standards and Objectives relevant to the LAQM framework have been prescribed through the Air Quality (England) Regulations (2000) (HMSO 2000), and the Air Quality (England) (Amendment) Regulations (2002) (HMSO 2002). The European Union Limit Values have been implemented via the Air Quality Standards Regulations (2010); which set out the combined Daughter Directive limit values and interim targets for Member State compliance (HMSO 2010).
22.
The current air quality standards and Objectives are presented in Table 20.5. Pollutant standards relate to ambient pollutant concentrations in air, set on the basis of medical and scientific evidence of how each pollutant affects human health.
Preliminary Environmental Information May 2014
East Anglia THREE Offshore Windfarm
Chapter 20 Air Quality Page 7
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