Clause 1 - Aerodrome charges: noise and emissions
Civil Aviation Bill
12:15 pm
Karen Buck (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport; Regent's Park and Kensington North, Labour)
There is no requirement to introduce a penalty scheme in the first place. If a penalty scheme is introduced, it must be non-discriminatory. The broader point then applies to Coventry as it does to other airports but if there were reasons to be concerned about the need for noise charges and noise penalty schemes such measures would have to be introduced, as they would be at other airports, in a non-discriminatory way, and applied equally. I hope and believe that that would be enough to deal with the matter.
I emphasise that any additional action to tackle the environmental impact of aviation must give due regard to the effects on the competitiveness of the UK economy and the impact of consumers, as well as on local communities. That balanced approach is at the heart of the ''Future of Air Transport'' White Paper.