These Regulations require the UK Government and its agencies to set plans for the monitoring of Air Quality across the UK. Plans will set out assessment thresholds, criteria and the location and numbers of sampling points for gases and solid matter, including:
Although air quality across the European Union has improved considerably over the last few decades, the European Commission has recognised more needs to be done to reduce the effects of harmful pollutants, especially PM2.5, introducing air quality directives.
The objective of the EU ambient air quality legislation is to improve air quality by reducing the impact of air pollution on human health and ecosystems. By setting air quality standards for key pollutants and obliging member states to provide air quality plans demonstrating how air quality standards will be achieved and maintained when compliance is breached, legislation on ambient air quality has contributed to the improvement of air quality throughput the European Union. New standards and target dates were introduced for reducing concentrations of micro fine particles to improve air quality even further.
