London mayor Sadiq Khan has been criticised after it emerged that a report on the impact on air quality of the expanded ULEZ will not be published until after the election in May.
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00:00 We're coming up on the mayoral election and the ULEZ is still going to be a big issue for voters
00:04 but the six month long report which will show, provide the first firm evidence of air quality changes
00:09 as a result of the expansion, that's not going to be released until after the election
00:13 and your opponent has said that you're hiding it on purpose, is that true?
00:17 Well there are pre-election rules. What I do know is that we publish the report one month after ULEZ goes live
00:25 six months afterwards, then twelve months afterwards. There's going to be some peer-to-peer reviews
00:29 so the six months only ended a couple of days ago. That data will now be in by TfL.
00:34 They'll look at the data, they'll obviously make sure there's seasonal adjustments.
00:37 That paper is then reviewed by others. If it's possible to do it before the pre-election period, that's great.
00:43 The pre-election period begins on Monday so I'm not sure where it is.
00:46 We do know though from the one month results that actually we've seen a massive increase
00:51 from 39% of vehicles being compliant, 85% of vehicles being compliant when consultation began,
00:57 95% of vehicles being compliant all across London including outer London.
01:01 That means 19 out of 20 vehicles are now compliant. Not paying a penny more,
01:05 but seeing the benefits of cleaner air. Additionally I've put in some more money
01:10 towards the scrappage scheme. It's now £210 million. There's plenty of money in the scrappage
01:14 scheme. I'd encourage those Londoners who are still driving a non-compliant vehicle to take
01:19 advantage of the scrappage scheme. So you know, let's wait and see.
01:22 Do you regret though that Londoners won't have a chance to look at this evidence before the election?
01:26 Oh of course because the evidence from the past is a massive success. We've seen those who are
01:30 hostile and anti in central London will suddenly convert because of the massive success. With those
01:36 in inner London who are opposite, who are opposed to this including Conservatives, opposed to it.
01:42 Massive success in inner London. I'm confident there'll be massive success in outer London and
01:46 those who were previously cynical or you know opposed to this will be won over. All the evidence
01:52 from the past two schemes is they've been won over. Why not have done a four month on report
01:56 or a five month on report that might have been in time before the pre-election period? I think
02:00 it's because you've got to compare luck with luck but also for the scientists and the experts they
02:03 want six months worth of data but I'm sure you can speak to other experts from you know Imperial
02:09 and Kingston they'll tell you what the right amount of data is.