The Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee will conclude its work this Parliament in March 2026 ahead of the next Scottish Parliament election. So the Committee has time to complete its work, it has agreed not to consider petitions submitted after 10 October.
The Committee will continue to meet but given the volume of petitions and agreed work programme it is unlikely that the Committee would be able to meaningfully progress work on petitions submitted after 10 October ahead of the election. Petitions lodged after this date will not fall when the Parliament is dissolved and will be for the successor committee to consider in the new session.
If you are seeking urgent action or policy change please contact one of your 8 MSPs or the Scottish Government directly.
Closed petition PE2123: Update air quality standards in Scotland to align with 2021 World Health Organisation guidelines.
Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to amend the Air Quality Standards (Scotland) Regulations 2010 by setting new limit values for nitrogen dioxide and fine particulate matter which align with the World Health Organisation air quality guidelines published in 2021.
Background information
The Scottish Government’s vision is for Scotland to have the best air quality in Europe. Progress has been made to meet the legal limits for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5), with 2022 being the first year, excluding lockdown years, Scotland has not breached the limits. Local authority reports in 2023 showed all automatic monitoring sites recorded NO2 and PM2.5 under the limits of 40 µg/m3 and 10 µg/m3 – the legal limits enacted in the Air Quality Standards (Scotland) Regulations 2010, based on the 2005 World Health Organisation (WHO) air quality guidelines.
In 2021, WHO produced updated air quality guidelines, which halved the previously recommended limits. Using the 2023 local authority annual reports, Asthma + Lung UK Scotland found that only 60 of the 85 automatic monitoring sites would meet the new 2021 guidelines for NO2 and 35 of the 82 monitoring sites would meet the guidelines for PM2.5.
This petition was considered by the Scottish Parliament
406 signatures