The standards will help improve public health outcomes and encourage the UK construction industry to invest in cleaner technology.

All diesel HGVs working the length of the HS2 project will be powered by the cleanest available Euro VI engines, going beyond current standards set here in the UK. Vehicle emission standards, denoted by the “Euro” categorisation, have been set and toughened over recent years and currently all newly-made combustion engine vehicles must comply with Euro VI, the most recent and strictest standard.

By insisting that all HGVs working on the project comply with the project’s standards, HS2 Ltd hopes it will encourage its suppliers to invest in new, cleaner and more efficient vehicles. The company has already introduced the stipulation for HGVs and plans to extend the standard for cars and vans in 2020.

As well as HGVs, cars and vans, a fleet of off-road machinery like diggers, cranes and diesel-powered generators is needed to build the 345 miles of the UK’s new high speed railway.

Currently only London sets any emissions standards at all for off-road machines. However, HS2 is insisting equipment used along the route’s entire length meets the EU Stage 3b standard, rising to less-polluting Stage 4 in 2020.

In the capital’s Congestion Charge Zone HS2 already demands its contractors comply with Stage 4, and will raise it to Stage 5 next year, staying one step ahead of the city’s own emissions standards.

HS2 Ltd’s director of environment, Peter Miller, said:

HS2 is more than a railway. We are leading the industry in vehicle emission standards by exceeding London’s construction industry standards and extending them 345 miles across the country. We are determined to use the project’s scale and duration to help cut the release of harmful combustion engine emissions by stipulating contractors building Britain’s new high speed rail network use the cleanest vehicles and machinery available.

By setting new vehicle emission standards for contractors we will contribute to efforts to improve air quality; and leave a legacy of a new fleet of low-emission HGVs and construction equipment to work on future projects. We also hope our rules influence local authorities along the route to follow HS2’s lead and introduce exacting emissions standards in their area, which would benefit huge swathes of the country.

The Fish Health Inspectorate (FHI) have found Koi herpesvirus (KHV) disease in fish at the following sites in England and Wales.

Pippa Britton

Pippa Britton is a double Paralympic archer having competed for ParalympicsGB at both Beijing 2008 and London 2012. Pippa has broken three world records and has represented Great Britain at the last six World Archery Championships, gaining a medal at each one – three individual medals, two team golds and one team silver. Pippa is currently Chair for Disability Sport Wales, Vice-Chair of the Sport Wales Board and a member of the Para-Archery Committee at World Archery.

Sarah Winckless

Sarah Winckless MBE is a former GB rower who won an Olympic bronze medal at the 2004 Athens Games and was world champion in both 2005 and 2006. Following her retirement from rowing in 2009, Sarah has chaired the British Olympic Association’s Athletes’ Commission from 2010 to 2014, and was Team GB Chef de Mission at the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games, and is currently performing that role for Team England for the Commonwealth Youth Games in 2017 and Commonwealth Games in 2018. In 2015, Sarah was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to Sport and Young People.

These reappointments have been made in accordance with the Cabinet Office’s Governance Code on Public Appointments. The appointments process is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. Under the Code, any significant political activity undertaken by an appointee in the last five years must be declared. This is defined as including holding office, public speaking, making a recordable donation, or candidature for election. Pippa and Sarah have declared no such activity.

Published 14 January 2019

Hilary Newiss

Hilary Newiss is a lawyer and former partner in Denton Hall solicitors, now Dentons. She specialised in intellectual property law and, since retiring from full time legal practice, has served on several public bodies and charities in the science, innovation, health, and ethics fields. She is currently a Chair of National Voices (an umbrella group of 160 Health and Social Care charities), sits on the Accelerated Access Collaborative, and is a Director of the Cell and Gene Catapult UK. Previously, Hilary was a Non-Executive Director of the Francis Crick Institute and a trustee of Charleston, the artists house museum in Sussex. She has also served on the Human Genetics Commission, the National Information Governance Board for Health and Social Care, the Advisory Panel for Public Sector Information and the Animals Procedures Committee. She is a former First Tier Tribunal Judge.

Simon Patterson

Simon Patterson joined Silver Lake in 2005 and is a Managing Director. He is currently a board member of Dell Technologies, ZPG and FlixBus, and previously served on the boards of Cegid, Intelsat, Skype, MultiPlan, and Gerson Lehrman Group. Prior to joining Silver Lake, he was a member of the founding management team of the logistics software company GF-X (acquired by Descartes) and worked in various management roles at the Financial Times. He is a Trustee of the Natural History Museum in London, a Trustee of the Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry, and a Non-Executive Director of Tesco plc. Mr. Patterson holds an M.A. from King’s College, Cambridge University and an M.B.A. from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar and received the Alexander Robichek Award for Finance.

These reappointments has been made in accordance with the Cabinet Office’s Governance Code on Public Appointments. The appointments process is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. Under the Code, any significant political activity undertaken by an appointee in the last five years must be declared. This is defined as including holding office, public speaking, making a recordable donation, or candidature for election. Hilary has declared no such activity. Simon has declared that he made a £25,000 donation the official remain campaign (Britain Stronger in Europe) during the 2016 referendum.

I’m here, as Health Secretary, because air pollution is a health emergency.

When it comes to our health, there’s lots of things we can take personal responsibility for: what we eat, how we exercise and whether we smoke, for instance.

And I’m no nanny state politician. I believe personal responsibility is important.

But around a third of what determines the length of our healthy life is the environment we live in – the things we can’t, alone, do anything about.

And of those environmental causes of healthy life expectancy, the biggest factor is the air we breathe.

The biggest single environmental cause of death is air pollution. Air pollution causes chronic conditions, and shortens lives.

In short: air pollution kills. Clean air saves lives.

And it’s worse than that – because the impact of air pollution is even bigger on children, as their lungs are growing.

I know this. I know more about air pollution than most people.

For a decade, almost, I lived next to a very busy main road.

I’d constantly have to clean the dirt – these horribly black specs that became a carpet – off my window sill.

And to this day I feel guilty that I brought my children into the world living next to the A40.

I’m delighted that I was able to move my family away, but I know not everyone is in a position to do that.

And contrast that with my constituency in West Suffolk where you’re much likelier to breathe fresh, clean air blown in from the sea – it might as well be 2 different worlds.

We are the fifth richest country in the world. We’ve just put an extra £20.5 billion into the NHS. Its budget will be £148 billion a year – £3,000 for every man, woman and child in this country.

Yet air pollution causes around 36,000 deaths each year, and puts extra, preventable strain on the NHS through increased incidents of heart disease, stroke, lung cancer and child asthma.

Surely we can afford to stop killing ourselves with entirely preventable filth, and give every child clean air, no matter where they live, so we can give every child the best possible start in life.

Much of the technology exists, and where it doesn’t, let’s invent it.

Every new development and new technology should be clean by design – like the NHS is leading the way on.

We all have a part to play. Cycling or walking short journeys instead of driving not only helps our own health, it reduces the health risk to others by helping cut air pollution.

But this isn’t something we can each do alone. It takes concerted, far-sighted government action, like the visionary action being proposed today by my brilliant friend Michael Gove.

That’s why we are working so closely together. It’s why I feel so strongly about these plans. For your children and for mine.

I’m very proud to do my bit, proud of this Conservative government demonstrating bold, progressive, energetic, popular action this day to improve the lives of millions, to deliver for our citizens, and make Britain fit for the future.