To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many consultation exercises his Department has undertaken on airport expansion in the last three years; and at what cost.

One, with a supplementary consultation. The "Adding Capacity at Heathrow Airport" consultation was published on 22 November 2007 and closed on 27 February this year. As part of the work to update the Impact Assessment issued with that consultation, the Department is currently consulting on an equalities impact assessment of the Heathrow development options. This closes on 9 November.

As this is still ongoing, the full costs of the "Adding Capacity at Heathrow Airport" consultation process have not yet been finalised.