Key information
Request reference number: MGLA040923-5683
Date of response:
Summary of request
Your request
- Provide all data used to determine the reason to implement the ULEZ in London.
- Provide post mortem documents of the London residents that you used as a basis to claim they died as a direct cause of pollution.
Our response
Decision to implement the ULEZ
Following a public consultation that ran from 20 May to 29 July 2022, the Mayor decided to
expand the ULEZ London-wide from 29 August 2023. The Mayor made this decision after
taking into account a detailed consultation report and integrated impact assessment.
The Mayor made this decision after taking into account a detailed consultation report and integrated impact assessment. Transport for London (TfL) ran the consultation, which received nearly 58,000 responses.
The majority of respondents to the consultation said there was a need to go further to tackle poor air quality. The Mayor has been clear that this was not an easy decision but a necessary one, due to the impact of air pollution on people’s health.
A number of documents were published alongside the consultation to help respondents
understand the proposals.
These are still publicly available on the TfL consultation website.
Data on premature deaths due to air pollution
In 2021, the GLA commissioned research from the Environmental Research Group (ERG) at Imperial College London to quantify the health burden of air pollution in London.
This research found that in 2019, in Greater London, 61,800 to 70,200 life years lost (the equivalent of between 3,600 to 4,100 attributable deaths) were estimated to be attributable to anthropogenic fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2), assuming health effects exist even at very low levels.
Environmental factors that affect health over a long time, like air pollution are not routinely
included on death certificates for individuals. In fact, smoking is not routinely included on
death certificates as a contributory factor for deaths from lung cancer or heart disease, even though smoking is a proven cause of premature death. However, in circumstances where there is sufficient evidence to link a death to a specific environmental exposure, this may be included on the death certificate or considered in a coroner's report.
The evidence that air pollution has negative effects on health throughout the life course, from pre-birth to old age is very well established. Most of these harms are through exposure over many years resulting in premature death from conditions such as heart disease, lung disease and lung cancers. The individual deaths will be recorded as having occurred due to these specific health conditions but there is strong evidence that, when you look at the impact over the whole population, air pollution is responsible for a proportion of these deaths.
If you have any further questions relating to this matter, please contact us, quoting
reference MGLA040923-5683.