UK Environment Secretary Michael Gove has published a clean air strategy this week, with plans to develop new standards for tyres and brakes to address toxic non-exhaust emissions.

The new Government strategy also says legislation will be introduced to enable the transport secretary to compel manufacturers to recall vehicles and machinery for any failures in their emissions control system, and make tampering with an emissions control system a legal offence.

The proposals are in addition to the Government’s £3.5 billion plan to reduce air pollution from road transport and diesel vehicles, set out in July last year.

It is estimated that the action will reduce the costs of air pollution to society by an estimated £1bn every year by 2020, rising to £2.5bn every year from 2030.

The new strategy sets out the Government’s goal that by 2025, it will halve the number of people living in locations where concentrations of particulate matter are above the World Health Organisation (WHO) guideline limit of 10 ug/m3 by 2025.