I thank the Minister for that. As on the previous occasion, I have no option but to withdraw it. However, the basis on which I withdraw it is not quite the same as the Minister’s.
The Minister is right to say that this is a relatively specific requirement, relating to checking what the effect would be of the emission zones, once established. But that is part of the evidence for extending them further. If they were simply replacing it with something more useful, I would not object to the deletion as such. But the reality is that that is just one part of what the Government seem—despite what the Minister has said—to be retreating from. They are not encouraging local authorities in a broad sense, although some local authorities, because of impetus within themselves, are still putting forward local emission zone propositions. I was surprised to hear Birmingham on that list, but I take the Minister’s word for it; some of the others I do know about. Local authorities as a whole do not feel that they are being encouraged to initiate new local emission zones. The Government are not really answering the essential thrust of this: if they are deleting what they regard as pernickety requirements, they should do so in the context of replacing them with a broader approach to encourage initiatives and activity at local and national level to improve our air quality.
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That is why our amendment is put in terms of accepting the deletion but replacing it with an obligation on the Secretary of State, not on the local authorities, to come forward with a framework and report to ensure that we know where we are going on this issue. At the moment we do not know and there is serious anxiety that we will not only continue to fail to meet the current EU standards but provide fewer resources and give less priority to air quality measures than was the case five or 10 years ago. That will make matters in the not-very-long run worse, not only in some of the more deprived areas—as my noble friend Lord Hunt said and I thank him for his support—but in substantial areas of our cities.
The Government need to take this significantly more seriously and I hope that they do so. I accept my noble friend’s view that there is also a noise issue often associated with air quality, because the same machinery that is creating the noise is creating the pollution. We need a broad approach to these issues. For the moment, we are not going to get from the Government. I would
like to believe that at some time in the next few months we will see a more coherent air quality strategy. Should there be a change of Government, we certainly intend to ensure that that is one of our main priorities for Defra after the election.
Obviously, I will withdraw the amendment but we hope that the Government will look again at the issue. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.