Clause 3 - Power for aerodromes to
Civil Aviation Bill
4:30 pm
Tom Brake (Shadow Secretary of State for Transport (And Scotland), Transport; Carshalton and Wallington, Liberal Democrat)
I draw hon. Members' attention to proposed new section 78A(1), in clause 3, which states:
''The person for the time being managing an aerodrome . . . may establish and maintain a penalty scheme.''
The amendment would ensure that such a scheme was set up by a ''competent authority''. That term might need definition, but perhaps it is worth explaining first why we feel that a competent authority is needed, rather than necessarily the airport manager. That brings us back to the issue that we discussed earlier in relation to Coventry airport. Is the manager of Coventry competent—I am sure that he or she is—when it comes to setting noise limits for aircraft departing from the airport that are flying for the company that owns the airport?
In discussions with the CAA, it has identified, for instance, that there is a department within the CAA called the environmental research and consultancy department. The ERCD is already responsible for monitoring noise and emissions at three designated airports and it carries out consultancy work at other airports, so it might be the appropriate competent authority. Clearly, it is doing work on noise and emissions and it is doing work at a number of designated airports. Therefore it might be the sort of authority that we need to see in place at airports such as Coventry to ensure that a proper noise scheme is implemented, rather than one that perhaps works to the advantage of a particular airline. All the other amendments in the group relate to that and would replace in the appropriate places the phrase ''relevant manager'' with ''competent authority''. Like many others, this is a probing amendment to give the Government an opportunity—