Clause 1 - Aerodrome charges: noise and emissions
Civil Aviation Bill
10:30 am
Julian Brazier (Shadow Minister, Transport; Canterbury, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 1, in clause 1, page 1, line 7, leave out 'may' and insert 'shall'.
This is a probing amendment. At present the clause states:
''Without prejudice to any power of any aerodrome authority to enter into an agreement on such terms as it thinks fit, an aerodrome authority may, for the purposes mentioned in subsection (2) below, fix its charges in respect of an aircraft or a class of aircraft''.
We suggest that the authority should do so. We wish to press the Government at this early stage to look beyond enabling powers and tell the Committee what they envisage being done. A whole range of groups are concerned about the future of civil aviation.
Environmentalists—I hope that we are all environmentalists in the Committee—are concerned about CO?2? and NOx emissions. They include those who live near airports, and some who live further away but under a flight path—that includes people who are affected by Manston airport, which is near my constituency—as well as those who are desperately worried about noise, those who travel on aeroplanes and the civil aviation industry, which is very anxious to know what will be done. The simple, one-word amendment is designed to probe the Government about that at an early stage.
The airlines made it clear in correspondence in the build-up to the Bill's introduction that in principle they are in favour of what the Government are trying to achieve, but they want to know where there will be compulsion and what will actually happen. I ask the Minister if the powers proposed will be compulsory, because it appears to the Opposition that there is nothing much in the clause that is not already happening.
As the Minister conceded at Second Reading, a large number of airports are already doing what is proposed, so what is the clause, which is rightly designed to give airports the power to regulate their charges according to emission noise and so on, trying to achieve? The airports already have the power, so if there is to be no compulsion, what is the purpose of the clause? I look forward to the Minister's response.