Requirements to assess and monitor air quality in residential, public and office buildings could be made mandatory as part of holistic legal reforms currently being read in parliament

A full package of legislative proposals that would collectively reform both internal and external air quality monitoring requirements in the UK has undergone a first reading in the House of Lords.

Further readings are expected during the summer with the aim of possibly putting the bill to the House of Commons from later this year as a piece of full legislation that can be implemented.

The proposals for the Clean Air (Human Rights) Bill were introduced by Green Party peer Baroness Jenny Jones as a private members’ bill and are named after Ella Roberta Kissi-Debrah, a British schoolgirl who died in 2013. A coroner ruled in 2020 that air pollution had directly contributed to the schoolgirl’s death. A year later, the coroner said the government should look to introduce stricter standards for acceptable levels of airborne contaminants in line with recent changes to the World Health Organisation (WHO) air quality guidelines.

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