I welcome the opportunity to discuss this important topic. As I highlighted in questions last week, poor air quality is one of the biggest public health challenges facing Wales. This is particularly true in the region I represent, South Wales West, which has some of the dirtiest air in the UK, where PM10s are often well above the safe daily limit, and at schools in my region we have had many days in the last few months where they were double the safe daily limit.

Air pollutants are to blame for the deaths of at least five people per day in Wales, and the biggest contributor to air pollution is transport. Since the UK Labour Government incentivised the switch to diesel, the amount of particulates and nitrogen dioxide in our atmosphere has increased dramatically. In all fairness, the current UK Government has tried to reverse this policy and has introduced a new vehicle tax system to penalise the most polluting vehicles. They have also introduced a new scrappage scheme, designed to get old polluting vehicles off the road, and have made a commitment to move to an all-electric-vehicle future by phasing out all fossil-fuelled engines by 2040. I welcome these moves and will be supporting the amendment put forward by the Welsh Conservatives.

This action by the UK Government needs to be backed up by action by the Welsh Government. As we learnt this morning, the Welsh Government is being taken to court for its lack of action on tackling air pollution. It’s time that they fulfilled their duties to the Welsh public. They can start by taking action to reduce traffic congestion, which amplifies the effect of traffic pollution. I would like to see the Welsh Government ensuring the planning system takes account of the effects new developments will have on traffic congestion.

UKIP will be supporting the majority of Plaid Cymru’s amendments. We have said all along that air pollution is a public health issue and that the Welsh Government must develop a strategy to tackle poor air quality at a national level. I look forward to working with any party—all parties—so that we can help bring about a strategy to help air pollution.

We do agree that there needs to be a reporting system to alert residents to poor air quality, but that this should be done at a national level and not left to local health boards. New developments such as the British-made Sentinel Five P satellite, which monitors air pollutants, could be utilised at a national level to improve forecasting of high levels of air pollution and should be used to warn the public about such events, in much the same way that weather reports feature pollen counts. Welsh and UK Governments need to act upon this urgently. High pollution levels kill. We will, therefore, be abstaining on amendment 3 but will be supporting all of Plaid’s other amendments.

The investment in electric charging is welcome, but we have to consider the huge infrastructure challenges brought by the electrification of transport. How can we deliver charging points to those people not fortunate to have a driveway or a garage? I would urge the Governments, both in Wales and at Westminster, to invest in the development of wireless vehicle charging. Both Governments also need to ensure the roll-out of electric vehicle charging is not impeded by the planning system. We have to tackle this major public health challenge head on. We have to clean up our act. I look forward to seeing the Welsh Government's clean air plans and hope that we can all work together to ensure no-one dies as a result of poor air quality in the future. Thank you.