In response to the absence of a Clean Air Bill within the King’s Speech, The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) outline the urgent need for the new government to prioritise air quality to achieve their mission of unlocking growth and improving living standards.

King Charles has today delivered the King’s Speech as part of the State Opening of Parliament, which provides first insight into the government’s legislative priorities for the next five years. The speech centred around Labour’s prioritisation of economic growth, introducing 35 new bills ranging from border security, clean energy to public health. CIEH will be publishing a full roundup of the announcement, and what it means for environmental health, later this week.

While CIEH welcomes the inclusion of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill and Take Back Control Bill, which will seek to enhance local authority powers across local communities and safeguard wider public health, a notable omission from the King’s Speech was an introduction of a Clean Air Bill.

Crucially, the absence of a Clean Air Bill was a missed opportunity to establish a holistic, ambitious approach to tackling air pollution that CIEH have long been calling for.  Air pollution is one of the biggest threats to public health in the UK, and the second biggest killer globally. Safeguarding the UK’s air quality won’t only secure the greater health and well-being of our population, but result in healthcare cost savings, boosted workplace productivity and employment opportunities. Tackling this issue is made even more urgent by the current legal challenge against ministers for the pollution-linked death of Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah.

CIEH will continue to call upon the government to introduce a Clean Air Bill and embed air quality across all of Labour’s wider policies to address the current fragmented approach to tackling this urgent issue.

Mark Elliott, president of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, said: “Tackling air pollution is fundamental to securing Labour’s missions to safeguard public health and spearhead sustained economic growth and therefore it must form part of the Government’s priorities.

Air quality remains one of the greatest risks to public health, contributing to almost 40,000 deaths and costing the economy £22.6 billion every year.

CIEH are calling upon the UK government to scale their ambition and prioritisation of air quality across all their policies by introducing the World Health Organization’s air quality target of 10ug/m3 PM2.5 by 2030 and providing local authorities with the capacity and resources to holistically tackle air pollution.”