Environmental Protection UK

Description

Environmental Protection UK is a national charity that provides expert policy analysis and information on air quality, land quality and noise.

Its members are environmental experts, including local authorities, universities, industries, consultants and private individuals, who work as practitioners, investigators or advisors. The organisation promotes evidence-based, integrated policymaking on public health, planning, transport, energy and climate. It publishes reports and runs expert-led events, and produces Essential Environment, a guide to UK and EU environmental legislation. It works closely with government departments and represents members through European and international air pollution associations.

The organisation traces its roots to the Coal Smoke Abatement Society, founded in 1898, later known as the National Society for Clean Air before taking its current name in 2007. It helped shape UK clean air law, including the Clean Air Act 1956, and later worked on air quality management, neighbourhood noise and environmental noise from transport. It launched the Healthy Air Campaign in 2011 and long coordinated Noise Action Week.

Environmental Protection UK operates across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, with seven divisions in England and one each in the other nations. It is not a regulator and does not intervene in individual pollution complaints; it directs such cases to local authorities or the Environment Agency.