The High Court has ordered the government to publish its plans to curb air pollution after the local elections and not wait until the end of June.
Defra officials had attempted to delay publication, claiming that meeting the court’s original 24 April deadline, which had been issued in November 2016, would breach the purdah rules ahead of the general election on 8 June. These constrain the government from publishing policy documents ahead of elections.
Environment secretary Andrea Leadsom had told MPs that officials in the Cabinet Office had advised her that publication would breach those rules and that the draft would not be published until 30 June, with the full policy released on 15 September.
Her department applied to the courts to allow it to breach the deadline.
When pressed by the judge, the government’s Counsel said he could not give the court a guarantee that delaying the draft plan past the general election would not have an impact on the implementation of measures to reduce air pollution as soon as possible.
The judge refused the application and did not grant permsission for an appeal. He said that the secretary of state was 'obliged to comply with orders of this court as any other litigant', and described the impact of air pollution as 'exceptional public health circumstances'.
James Thornton, chief executive of ClientEarth, which successfully took the government to court over its failure to tackle illegal air pollution, said: 'We are delighted with the ruling. We cannot afford more dither and delay from the government. Rather than appeal this decision, they need to get on and produce their plans to bring down air pollution as soon as possible.
'The judge agreed with us that this is a matter of public health, not politics,' he added.
