Air pollution in the UK 2025
The UK’s annual compliance assessment for 2025 against the Air Quality Standards Regulations (2010).
Documents
Details
Clean air is vital for people’s health and wellbeing, supporting a thriving natural environment, and creating the conditions for prosperity and long-term economic growth in communities across the UK.
Improving air quality is a priority for the UK, it is therefore important to assess levels of air pollution.
Air Pollution in the UK 2025 presents the results of the UK’s annual compliance assessment against the Air Quality Standards Regulations (2010).
It is reported on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the devolved governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
This assessment is supported by technical reports that demonstrate the compliance of the UK’s air quality monitoring network design, the UK’s monitoring networks, and the modelled evidence used to support compliance assessment decisions.
Compliance results and data tables
The datasets associated with the compliance assessment are published in accessible formats on the air quality compliance assessment 2025: results and data tables.
Mapping data from the modelling is also available on the air quality compliance assessment 2025: modelled data and reports.
Additional reports from devolved governments
Separate to this UK compliance assessment, the devolved governments each produce their own short annual report, providing more specific information on air quality in their parts of the UK. See:
Legislation
In the UK, concentrations of a range of pollutants in ambient air are regulated by the Air Quality Standards Regulations (2010) as follows:
- Air Quality Standards Regulations (2010) (UK Government, 2010) and in England their December 2016 amendment (UK Government, 2016)
- Air Quality Standards (Scotland) Regulations (2010) in Scotland (Scottish Government, 2010), and their December 2016 amendment (Scottish Government, 2016)
- Air Quality Standards (Wales) Regulations (2010) in Wales (Welsh Government, 2010)
- Air Quality Standards Regulations (Northern Ireland) (2010) (Department of Environment Northern Ireland, 2010) and their January 2017 amendment (DAERA, 2017)
- Air Quality Standards Regulations (Gibraltar) and their December 2016 amendment (HM Government of Gibraltar, 2016)
These Regulations have their origins in the European Union legislation:
- Directive 2008/50/EC of 21 May 2008, on Ambient Air Quality and Cleaner Air for Europe (European Parliament and Council of the European Union, 2008)
- Directive 2004/107/EC of 15 December 2004 (European Parliament and Council of the European, 2004)
The Air Quality Standards Regulations (2010) set ‘limit values’, ‘target values’, ‘long-term objectives’ and ‘critical levels’ for ambient concentrations of air pollutants.
More stringent targets have been set in England for PM2.5 since the Air Quality Standards Regulations (2010). Progress towards additional PM2.5 targets in England, is published in a separate Accredited Official Statistics publication.
This assessment is also separate to any air quality assessments made under local air quality management.