Bruce Allen’s Insight | April 2020
Spring has arrived with us this year in very different circumstances. I hope you are all keeping safe, my thoughts are with you all at this time.
As a business, we have been continuing to operate as close to normal as possible. The teams are working remotely with the office closed and are working to support our registrants as best as possible.Please do get in touch with our team to discuss your registration and training issues, we are here to support you and the team has a number of flexible solutions they can implement. Contact info@hetas.co.uk and include your registration details and the team will get back to you as soon as possible. The team has had a positive response from those who have contacted us about their requirements. We are prioritising those with renewals or refresher training due over the coming weeks and months, but our support is available to all so please do get in touch with us.
We also urge every business to explore the range of government support that has been provided in response to this ongoing situation. No doubt you will be exploring all the options available to support your business. The team has pulled together the key resources and links and they are highlighted in this month’s newsletter, hopefully these will be of use to you.
Air quality remains in the headlines, this time for positive reasons as the impact of lockdown has seen vast improvements in air quality. We have also seen councils across the country requesting people do not light bonfires at this time, with many identifying the damage they can have on air quality. We felt it was a good time to look back at our scientific work from late 2019. The review looked at the impact of domestic combustion on air quality. This review holds some significant information that links to the current headlines. Work in the review included looking at source apportionment methods, emissions inventories for domestic burning as well as looking at alternate sources of biomass burning and their scale to better understand how they may contribute to overall PM emissions. It’s a detailed review at 125 pages, but is worth taking the time to understand the key points. Our summary here also highlights some of the key uncertainties when it comes to estimating the true impact of domestic combustion on UK air quality.
Government and Local Authorities continue their work on policies relating to air quality too, despite the lockdown. We are in continued discussions with Defra on this issue as they progress their work on cleaner fuels and the Environment Bill makes progress through the House of Commons. We’ve taken a look at the current progress of many of the policies in development across the UK.
We have all enjoyed seeing your recent installation and sweep jobs on social media, keep tagging HETAS or use the #HETAS.
Look out for our next Technical Bulletin which will be landing in your inboxes very soon, including a new Technical Note, looking specifically at insulation materials. You can find all of our Bulletins, Technical and Guidance Notes and archive newsletters in the dedicated HETAS Technical Hub.
