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“LIKE MP’S EXPENSES, THE GOVERNMENT IS SET TO BE EMBARRASSED BY THE SCANDAL OF WHY THE UK HAS THE WORST ROAD POLLUTION IN EUROPE”… says Tony Wilson, Chairman of the Klarius Group.

The report, by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), warns that the UK will face large fines for breaching the EU limit unless radical measures are taken; these include national road pricing and subsidies for electric cars.

But are these measures the answer? Sadly, no. The viability of mass produced electric cars being used in any volume is still a decade away, and no government that wants to get re-elected is going to introduce road pricing in a hurry. In any case, the measures DEFRA proposes would not address the actual core problem, which the Government is only now starting to address.

A clue to the real nature of the pollution problem in the UK lies in the figures for the other major economies in Europe. Why has Germany around half the pollution figure for that of the UK when it has more cars; and why are the figures for Italy and France also so much lower than that for the UK? The answer is a simple one: there is mandatory type-approval on the exhaust systems and catalytic converters fitted to vehicles sold in these countries. In the UK there is not.

“The solution is simple, all the UK government needs to do is to implement the EU directive as law in the UK, which it is actually required to do, and the level of pollution will start to come down straight away, the UK fits 200,000 replacement exhausts every month, so they could be made cleaner overnight.”