4. Will the Minister provide an update on delivering a clean air act for Wales? OQ56611

Oh, that's me again. The Government has made a commitment to a clean air Act for Wales. Officials are developing proposals for a clean air Bill in light of responses to the consultation on the White Paper published in January 2020, and the Government will shortly announce our legislative programme.

Thank you for that answer, Minister. Air pollution is a silent killer, contributing to almost 1,400 early deaths and costing the Welsh NHS millions every year. It's something that we must tackle urgently and I fully support the Welsh Government's commitment to a clean air Act. However, Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation Wales are concerned that current proposals indicate that we might not see new regulations until the seventh Senedd term. While the White Paper sets out to improve air quality levels to be better than the World Health Organization recommended levels, what consideration has the Minister made to including regulating air pollutant levels during the progression of the Bill so that residents in some of the worst affected areas can gain the benefits as soon as possible?

Thank you for that important challenge. We are committed to introducing a piece of legislation. Clearly, the programme for government covers the whole of this Senedd term, and there is much legislation that we want to introduce. So, it's going to take time for all the pieces of legislation to be introduced. Clearly, air quality is an urgent challenge and we can't wait simply for legislation to pass in order to start tackling it, nor are we. I am assured by Welsh Government officials that we will have regulations in place in this Senedd term to tackle the agenda that Jayne Bryant has outlined. But just as important are what actions we can do in the meantime to tackle the issue. I'm very pleased to be coming to Newport tomorrow, on Clean Air Day, to look at the electric buses and the active travel routes that the authority have invested in and developed there. I think they're showing some great leadership in the work that they are doing.

The commitment in the Wales transport strategy, the modal shift, is essential; the work of the Burns report and the South East Wales Transport Commission, again, is vital. It's about getting people out of polluting cars and into more sustainable, environmentally friendly forms of transport, which can have a real impact in the short term on air quality; not simply waiting for legislation, which has its part to play. We're expecting, in the coming months, fresh recommendations from the World Health Organization, and we want to make sure that those recommendations are built into the legislation that we bring forward. We want to do that—let me just reiterate—on a cross-party basis if we can. We know that there are other parties in the Assembly who are committed to a clean air Act. It'll be interesting to understand, beyond the headline, what substance they support within that, because it's easy to say it, it's harder to do it. I'm reminded of the quote of Aneurin Bevan, who accused the Conservative Prime Minister of putting flamboyant labels on empty luggage. I'd hate to see that repeated in the commitments of the Conservatives to a clean air Act, because I think it's easy to talk about clean air, but the tough stuff you need to make it happen is often difficult and controversial. I'd be very pleased if we could sit down together and see what areas of commonality there are, because this agenda, clearly, is important for us all.

I would like to congratulate both Ministers on their new appointments. I must say, I'm very much looking forward to working with both of you and I'll definitely be taking you up on that invitation to work together.

Minister, I welcome your commitment to reduce air pollution and to improve air quality. It's a fact that Wales has some of the worst air quality in the UK with Cardiff and Port Talbot having higher PM10 levels than either Birmingham or Manchester. Stop-start traffic not only emits more greenhouse gases than free-flowing traffic, but it also causes more particulate pollution to be emitted. Schemes such as the M4 relief road would have increased the flow of traffic and, as the independent inspector stated, would lower pollution and provide widespread and significant air quality improvements for communities living alongside the M4, similar to myself. Will you confirm that your clean air strategy will consider measures to improve the flow of traffic and include a review of speed limits on sections of the M4? Thank you.

The search for consensus goes on, I would say. The issues around the M4 have been well rehearsed and we take different views on that. The way to reduce harmful pollution from cars is to have fewer cars, not to make the cars go faster. I think it's the emphasis on modal shift that we want to see, rather than creating additional roads, which, in turn, as we know through the induced demand principle, results in increased traffic and increased volumes. So, that, in a sense, is a very short-term fix. We need a sustainable long-term fix to this and I don't think that building large motorways through protected wetlands is the way to achieve that. But, certainly in terms of speed limits, I'd be very happy to include that in part of our discussions.