Local authorities are making it too difficult for residents to find information about dangerous levels of air pollution in their local area, a new report has argued today.
Published by the Public Accounts Committee, the report finds people are unable to protect themselves from dangerous pollution as they unable to find information about air quality.
This lack of good, accessible information is preventing pople from adapting their behaviour to protect their health, the report said.
It also warns that 64 local authorities have been too slow to tackle illegal levels of illegal levels of nitrogen dioxide pollution.
Dame Meg Hillier, chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said: 'A coroner who found air pollution was material in the death of a little girl who lived near London’s South Circular Road called for legal limits to be lowered, saying there is "no safe level of particulate matter" in the air. But current legal limits are regularly being exceeded and the public are not getting enough information about these dangerous breaches to adapt their behaviour in order to protect their health.
'Government doesn’t actually know how much public money is being spent addressing air quality across all departments - which does not suggest the integrated approach necessary to tackle this potentially deadly issue.'
The report makes a number of recommendations including a timetable to improve the accessibility of public information about local air quality and a new partnership with local authorities to improve air pollution.
