Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs

Check your local air quality

Local air quality management can be viewed on a per-local authority basis. You can select your local authority either by providing your postcode, or by selecting it from a drop-down list of local authorities.

In the 'Enter Postcode' box, please enter a valid UK Postcode to find your local authority.

Use the 'Select Local Authority' box to select a local authority.

Once a local authority or postcode has been provided, click the 'Start' button for information about local air quality management in your area.



Understanding Local Air Quality

Air Quality Objectives

National air quality objectives are in place to protect people's health from the effects of air pollution hotspots and to ensure the quality of air is maintained at a safe level for local communities. There are differences between the national air quality objectives and the limit values set by the Air Quality Standards Regulations.

What are the differences? LAQM is a local regime that allows local authorities to focus on specific pollution hotspots and take targeted action, for pollutants like NO2 and PM10. In contrast, the Air Quality Standards Regulations set national, legally binding limits for a wider range of pollutants and are used to track overall UK compliance. Monitoring under LAQM can also be more flexible, while AQSR monitoring must follow strict technical standards and is carried out through national monitoring networks. For information about the difference between the national air quality objectives and the limit values set by the Air Quality Standards Regulations 2010 please visit the UK-AIR UK Air Quality Limits page.

Annual Reports

Local authorities report on the air quality objectives on a one-year delay in their annual reports. Local authorities that have air quality monitoring data below the air quality objectives are compliant.

Air Quality Management Areas

If a local authority finds any places where the objectives have been exceeded or are not likely to be met, it must declare an Air Quality Management Area (AQMA). This area could be just one or two streets, or it could be much bigger.

Air Quality Action Plans

Where there is an AQMA, the local authority must also produce an Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP) to bring air pollution down below the air quality objectives.

Air Quality Strategies

Local authorities without AQMAs are encouraged to develop an Air Quality Strategy to ensure Councils commit to preventative action on air pollution.

Breathing in polluted air affects our health. When you breathe in poor quality air, the air pollutants can travel into your bloodstream through to your lungs and heart. Over a long period of time, exposure to air pollution can cause a range of health impacts including asthma, respiratory issues, heart disease and cancer.

Children, pregnant people, the elderly, and those with existing heart and lung conditions are most vulnerable to the health impacts of air pollution.

What you can do to lower air pollution
  • Walk, cycle or use public transport when you can
  • If driving, turn your engine off when you’re stationary
  • Compost garden waste instead of burning it
  • Do not burn waste materials. For example, rubber or old furniture
  • Follow the guidance for outdoor burning
What you can do to reduce your exposure to air pollution
  • When walking or cycling, use side streets with lower volumes of traffic
  • When walking, keep to the side of the pavement that is furthest away from the road
  • Plan outdoor exercise or your child’s play time in spaces away from busy roads
  • Avoid rush hour times when you exercise outdoors or take your child out to play

To find out more about the impact of poor air quality for public health, see guidance provided by UK Health Security Agency:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-matters-air-pollution/health-matters-air-pollution.

Help

Selecting a Local Authority

The first point of contact when using the local air quality management dashboard is selecting a local authority. Users can do so in one of two ways:

  1. Typing in their postcode
  2. Selecting their local authority from a drop-down list

Once either option has been entered, clicking the "Start" button will begin a search for local authority information. This should take under a minute, although if the dashboard is under heavy load it may take slightly longer.

On selecting a local authority in this way, two features of the dashboard will be unlocked:

  • A new link in the sidebar, found on the left-hand side, will be added to navigate to the main page of the dashboard. The interface should automatically navigate to this page when the data is ready.
  • The 'air pollution forecast' link in the sidebar will automatically navigate to the chosen local authority or postcode.

Understanding the dashboard

At the top of the dashboard are three boxes. The left-hand side box shows the overall compliance of the local authority for both NO2 and PM10. The middle and right-hand side boxes show compliance for NO2 and PM10 individually, including a count of the measurement sites which are compliant.

The main bulk of the dashboard is found in the card beneath these boxes. This portion can be made fullscreen by clicking on the icon at the bottom-right of the card. There are four tabs to pick from, navigatable by clicking on each of the names at the top of the card:

  • Local Authority Map: This screen shows a map of the local authority. The local authority boundary, AQMAs, SCAs, and exempt areas are all shown as colour-coded shapes drawn onto the map. Circular markers show individual measurement sites which are colour-coded by their annual concentration. Clicking "Show Legends" at the top-right will reveal the colour legends for both the shapes and site markers. The map sidebar can be used to toggle on and off the monitoring stations, AQMAs and SCAs, as well as switch the basemap to a more detailed view or satellite image. The map itself can be navigated around by clicking and dragging, and zoomed using the user's scroll wheel or the controls at the bottom-left of the map. Many of the map features can be clicked on to reveal more information. Beneath the map is found information on Air Quality Management Areas (AQMAs). Clicking this bar will expand to reveal a table detailing AQMA names and descriptions, as well as the pollutants for which they have been declared.
  • Air Quality Monitoring: This screen shows a list of air quality monitoring stations for the pollutant selected in the sidebar, either NO2 or PM10. By default, the site name, annual mean concentration, compliance status and whether or not the station is distance corrected or not is shown, but additional information can be revealled by clicking 'Show Extra Information?' in the sidebar. All data can be downloaded by clicking the 'Download monitoring data' button. Clicking on a site name will navigate to that site on the local authority map.
  • Local Authority Actions: This screen tabulates information relating to Air Quality Action Plans (AQAPs), as well as providing links to relevant local authority websites.
  • Actions You Can Take: This screen shows actionable advice for members of the public to lower air pollution and reduce their exposure to air pollution. This advice is the same for all local authorities.

Throughout the dashboard tables can be sorted by clicking on the column headers. This will put the contents in alphabetical order for categorical data, or in order of magnitude for numeric data.

Contacts

For additional help or to report any issues, please contact aqinfo@ricardo.com.

About this Resource

Purpose

This page illustrates to members of the public, what air quality is like in their area and what their local authority is doing to improve it under the Local Air Quality Management framework (Environment Act 1995 as amended by Environment Act 2021). This provides:
  • Locally-managed air quality monitoring data
  • Details of Air Quality Management Areas
  • Information on Smoke Control Areas
  • Local authority actions to reduce air pollution
The information provided does not include data from national monitoring networks. For more information about the difference between local and national monitoring, please visit this FAQ. The Local Air Quality Management information and data presented on this page has been provided by local authorities in their latest Annual Reports, which provides data from the previous year. Please refer to the glossary for further information on the terms used. If you have a question about the data presented, please contact the relevant local authority. Boundaries represented in this mapping application are an outline of adjoining Smoke Control Orders and do not show the extent of individual Orders, unless geographically separate.

Licensing

Local authority boundaries were retrieved from the Office for National Statistics and are licensed under the Open Government Licence v.3.0.

Map tiles are attributed to:

  • Default: CARTO
  • Detailed: OpenStreetMap contributors
  • Satellite: Esri, i-cubed, USDA, USGS, AEX, GeoEye, Getmapping, Aerogrid, IGN, IGP, UPR-EGP, and the GIS User Community

Glossary



Air Quality Standards and Objectives

A “standard” for air quality is usually a specified concentration of a particular pollutant, measured over a given time, considered to be the maximum acceptable in the light of what is scientifically known about the effects of the pollutant on health and on the environment.

The standards for different pollutants are based on different averaging periods. Some pollutants have more than one standard, based on more than one averaging period: for example, nitrogen dioxide has a short-term standard based on the hourly mean, and a long-term standard based on the annual mean.

An “objective” includes the target date by which a standard must not be exceeded. An “exceedance” of a standard is a period of time where the concentration is higher than that set out in the standard.

Standards and objectives can be used as a benchmark to see if air pollution is getting better or worse. Where these standards and objectives are not being met, local authorities must designate an Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) and produce an Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP) to achieve and maintain compliance.

Set out in The Air Quality (England) Regulations 2000 (2002 as amended).


In recognition of the fact that all of the objectives for Benzene, 1,3-Butadiene, Carbon Monoxide and Lead have been met for several years and are well below objective values, local authorities in England do not have to report on these pollutants unless local circumstances indicate otherwise.

Set out in the Air Quality (Scotland) Regulations 2000, the Air Quality (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2002 and the Air Quality (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2016.


Set out in the Air Quality (Wales) Regulations 2000, as amended by the Air Quality (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2002.


In recognition of the fact that all of the objectives for Benzene, 1,3-Butadiene, Carbon Monoxide, SO2 and Lead have been met for several years and are well below objective values, local authorities in Wales do not have to report on these pollutants unless local circumstances indicate otherwise.

Set out in the Air Quality Standards Regulations (Northern Ireland) (2010).





National vs Local Monitoring

What is the difference between the local and national air quality monitoring networks?

There are two frameworks for measuring and managing the concentration of air pollution across the UK. The air quality monitoring information for each is produced according to different technical requirements and therefore is presented separately to avoid direct comparison.

This page explains each of the frameworks and provides links to more detailed information.

Local Air Quality Management

Local Air Quality Management is a UK wide legal framework, focusing on targeting local pollution hotspots that are relevant to public exposure. For example, a congested traffic junction in a residential area.

Local Air Quality Management is underpinned by the Environment Act 1995 (Part IV of the Environment Act 1995 and Part II of the Environment (Northern Ireland) Order 2002). It requires local authorities to use their local monitoring network to assess air quality in their areas against national Air Quality Objectives and Standards and produce an annual report.

Where these standards and objectives are not being met, local authorities must designate an Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) and produce an Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP) to achieve and maintain compliance.

Set out in The Air Quality (England) Regulations 2000 (2002 as amended) and included in the Air Quality Strategy.


In recognition of the fact that all of the objectives for Benzene, 1,3-Butadiene, Carbon Monoxide and Lead have been met for several years and are well below objective values, local authorities in England and Wales do not have to report on these pollutants (or SO2, in the case of Wales) unless local circumstances indicate otherwise. These pollutants remain a statutory reporting requirement in Scotland and Northern Ireland.


Air Quality Standards Regulations (2010)

Air Quality Standards Regulations (2010) (AQSR) is a UK wide legal framework that sets legally binding limits for concentrations in outdoor air of major air pollutants that impact public health Under this framework, the Government uses a national monitoring network to focus on general and background exposure to air pollutants (ambient air quality) and avoids measuring some micro-environments that would otherwise be included in Local Air Quality Management. For example, a congested traffic junction.

Where there is a breach of the limit values set out in the AQSR, the Government is required to act. The 2017 Air Quality Plan for Nitrogen Dioxide and its 2018 supplement set out how Government is taking action to address breaches of air quality concentration limit values for Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) in the shortest possible time).

The UK formerly submitted data on ambient air quality to the European Commission. Following the EU exit, the UK is required to make the same data available in their own data repositories in accordance with the Air Quality (Miscellaneous Amendment and Revocation of Retained Direct EU Legislation) (EU Exit) Regulations (2018)


In summary, as local authorities can use air quality measurements that do not meet the requirements placed on our national monitoring networks, this can lead to differences between national and local assessments.