New Clause 9 - Aerodrome security strategy report
Civil Aviation Bill
10:00 am
Julian Brazier (Shadow Minister, Transport; Canterbury, Conservative)
In keeping with your remarks, Mr. O’Hara, I shall be extremely brief. I have no desire to keep the Committee here this afternoon. Obviously in tabling his new clause, the hon. Member for Southport (Dr. Pugh) does not seriously want people to publish a strategy report, which obviously would be a disaster. I am glad to see him nodding his head. The last thing we would want is to have the strategy in the public domain. He has made several good points and I will not go over the same ground again.
The Conservative party is concerned that although there are some visible, intrusive examples around Parliament, there is a lack of co-ordination on security across the board. We often see at Heathrow the kind of exercises that take place in America, but we never see them at the small regional airports, which are much more likely victims of terrorist attacks than the more obvious ones around London. The co-ordination between the police, the fire brigade, the ambulance service, the airport authorities, the local army and reserve forces and so on can only be got to work properly with proper exercises. There are problems with security and I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on raising them.
May I say how much I have enjoyed serving on this Committee under your chairmanship, Mr. O’Hara and that of Sir Nicholas Winterton? We have had a constructive series of exchanges and have been able to agree on a large number of things and disagree on a few others.