Pollution figures 'left out of report'

Damning figures showing a rise in transport pollution were dropped from an official report after pressure from government officials, it emerged today.

The environmental audit by the Office of National Statistics should have included data showing a surge in pollution from the air and freight industries.

It was to be published in the week Tony Blair and Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett made statements on Britain's role in fighting climate change.

But it was substituted with another, published last Friday, which did not mention transport emissions. The original report included the headline "Rise in greenhouse-gas emissions from transport" and reported an 85 per cent pollution increase from the airline industry and a 59 per cent rise for f reight transpor t between 1990 and 2002.

It said this would have been worse but for the slump in air travel following the September 11 terrorist attacks.

The ONS statistician who compiled the figures said the Department of Transport objected to the way they were presented.

"They spoke to me several times; in the end I withdrew the report", he said. The department denied it was for political reasons.