Second and Third Air Quality Daughter Directives:
Consultation Paper

Note: This consultation has now closed. A summary of responses has now been published together with details of implementing arrangements.

The following material has been left in place for reference/archive purposes.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) are inviting comments on a proposal to implement health based limit values for carbon monoxide and benzene, and non-mandatory target values and long-term objectives for ozone in England. The document sets out the requirements of the Second and Third Air Quality Daughter Directives and the draft regulations to transpose the Directives in England. The Devolved Administrations will be consulting separately on proposals to transpose the Directives in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The health based limit values for carbon monoxide and benzene in the Second Daughter Directive (2000/69/EC) and the target values for ozone in the Third Daughter Directive (2002/3/EC) are the same as, or less stringent than current national air quality objectives. Therefore the impact of implementing both of these agreements for the UK is minimal as the main requirements are already met.

The consultation paper is available in Adobe Acrobat format for downloading (400kb). See also this News Release (16 August 2002).

Consultations close on 8 November 2002.

Background/Links

The EU Air Quality Framework Directive, adopted on 27 September 1996, forms the basis of subsequent "Daughter" Directives which set out long term ambient air quality values for 12 pollutants that are known to have a harmful effect on human health and the environment.

• The Second Daughter Directive sets limit values for benzene and carbon monoxide for the protection of human health. It was adopted on 16 November 2000.
  A copy of the Directive can be found on the EU website at
  http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/pri/en/oj/dat/2000/l_313/l_31320001213en00120021.pdf
• The Third Daughter Directive sets target values and long-term objectives, for the protection of human health and vegetation, for 2010 and 2020 respectively. It was adopted on 12 February 2002.
  A copy of the Directive can be found on the EU website at
  http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/pri/en/oj/dat/2002/l_067/l_06720020309en00140030.pdf

UK emission for pollutants are published on the UK National Air Quality Information Archive and the UK National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory at www.naei.org.uk. Further information on air pollution and other measures to improve air quality can be found on the air quality pages of the Defra website.