Civil Aviation Bill

Lord Rotherwick Excerpts

Wednesday 27th June 2012 Grand Committee

Moved by

[Lord Rotherwick]

3: Clause 1, page 2, line 7, at end insert—
“( ) the need to secure that the reasonable needs and interests of general and business aviation are promoted and safeguarded,”

[Lord Rotherwick]

My Lords, I beg to move Amendment 3. I shall speak also to Amendments 9 and 11—the latter of which seeks to introduce a new clause after Clause 1. First, I would like to apologise to the Minister for not being able to speak at the Second Reading; and, secondly, I declare my interest as a private pilot and an aircraft owner. I also declare an interest as a director of the Light Aviation Association, which serves the interests of sports and recreational powered flying in the UK, and as vice president of the General Aviation Alliance, a body that co-ordinates regulatory interests of various UK aviation associations, thus representing a co-ordinated position for their pilots, aircraft owners and operators. Moreover, to demonstrate that the LAA is not a pressure group, but a body that knows of what it speaks, the LAA is itself a regulatory body, exercising functions delegated to it by the CAA in respect of a huge range of general aviation aircraft.

This Bill does not provide us with a comprehensive new legal framework to replace the whole of the Civil Aviation Act 1982. Some may lament the fact, given that this is the first Bill to address this area of policy in a generation. It is not as though the ground has not been prepared. Considerable effort has been expended in recent years in examinations and analysis of the role and function of the CAA in preparation for a more comprehensive piece of legislation.

The Bill before your Lordships’ House is, regrettably, limited in its scope. Its principal focus is on the economic regulation of major airports, but it goes little further, placing new duties on the Civil Aviation Authority in respect of airline passengers and owners of air cargo. Unfortunately, these new regulatory duties will, if enacted in their present form, ignore other sectors of UK aviation. Consequently, the Bill may, in fact, sow the seeds of potentially damaging developments that would impact on those other sectors. In particular, they will have potentially serious implications for the growth and sustainability of the general and business aviation industry and community, which contribute so much to the economy of the UK, and which have the potential to contribute so much more to helping us, as a nation, to move out of our present predicaments. If airport regulation is framed for the benefit of the air transport user, as it is in the Bill, the inevitable consequence will be the creeping exclusion of the other sectors of civil aviation and general and business aviation.

This trend is already evident. I travel widely as a private pilot and find that the provisions for general and business aviation in many other countries put ours to shame. I am therefore bringing forward simple and straightforward amendments to protect and promote general and business aviation and to ensure that this important sector continues to use our major airports. This objective can be ensured by giving the CAA a specific duty to consider general and business aviation in its regulation of major airports.

General and business aviation is important. It includes any civilian aircraft operation other than a commercial air transport flight operating to a schedule. It represents a multi-billion pound industry in the UK, from executive business jets through flying training and air ambulances to private aircraft operators and pilots. A 2009 study by PricewaterhouseCoopers on the total value of this sector found that its contribution to the UK economy was £3.7 billion, equivalent to 0.2% of UK economic activity, with around 50,000 people directly employed. The review also identified that of the 27,000 UK-registered aircraft, only 4% were commercial air transport aircraft.

We have a Bill before us—the first in a generation, although I hope it will not be the last—that neglects 96% of UK-registered aircraft and concerns itself with only those few airports that enjoy a dominant market position. It does not address the needs or interests of the general and business aviation community or make any attempt to regulate the activities of the majority of the airports on which this important sector depends.

The Parliament of the European Union recently issued a valuable resolution, 2008/2134, which I commend to the Minister and to the Committee, calling on member states to adopt policies promoting growth and sustainability in general and business aviation. The Government have, as yet, made no significant response to this resolution. However, this Bill is a perfect vehicle. It provides the opportunity, with some slight amendment consistent with its general principles, to make a worthwhile start. This would entail recognising in legislation that general and business aviation has a place at our airports and that its needs and interests should be promoted and sustained by the CAA alongside those of air transport users.

The amendments I propose to Clause 1 are modest and a reasonable modification of the regulatory functions of the CAA, yet they have the potential to bring about a substantial improvement in the operating environment for general and business aviation, which would reap rewards for business, industry, UK competitiveness and the financial health of the country. It will not be lost on my noble friend the Minister that the amendments merely extend the functions of the CAA in respect of operators of dominant airports. I regret that the narrow scope of the Bill precludes an amendment to include all airports, which would be ideal. Although amendments that I would prefer to have tabled are outside the scope of the Bill, they are within its spirit and philosophy.

I urge my noble friend the Minister to reflect on the work that has gone before and on the resolution of the European Parliament. I urge him also to recognise the opportunity that this Bill offers to put general and business aviation interests on the government agenda and send a long-overdue message to the European Parliament and business community that the UK is open for aviation business in all its diversity. I hope my noble friend the Minister will see the benefits this would bring to the country. If he is unable to accept my amendments, I hope that I will be able to offer my services and those of the LAA to him and his officials so that we can work together on this and secure a Bill for the general and business aviation industry, and for the community, that is fit for the future and holds the promise of a brighter one. I invite the Minister to accept this offer, in his usual accommodating fashion, to facilitate the further discussions that will be of mutual benefit.

--- Later in debate ---

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, these amendments propose the inclusion of new secondary duties that take account of the interests of general and business aviation. I accept that the Bill is limited in scope. It seeks primarily to provide for better regulation of our airports and is not designed to be a comprehensive overhaul of our legislation. Having carefully considered these amendments, I cannot accept them, as they are unlikely to yield significant benefits but could unfortunately introduce unnecessary ambiguity into the Bill.

Despite the amendments being carefully drafted, a technical difficulty arises because of the absence of any definition or description of what is meant by “general and business aviation”, so the amendment may introduce undesirable uncertainty. I am sure that all noble Lords in the Committee understand what we mean by it, but not in legislative terms. I will ensure that I am briefed on the EU declaration that my noble friend Lord Rotherwick mentioned.

There are also policy difficulties with the proposed amendment. One policy intention behind the Clause 1 duties is for the CAA to be provided with a set of clear and unambiguous duties, promoting the interests of passengers and owners of cargo in the provision of air operation services. It follows that the number of secondary duties should be as small as is reasonably practicable. The new framework for economic regulation would apply to airports with significant market power—currently, Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted. General and business aviation interests will be covered when the flight includes passengers. For example, when a corporate flight is carrying business passengers, the primary duty will extend to the passengers as they will comprise users of transport services. It appears that the only cases where the interests of general and business aviation will not be taken into account are when the flight carries neither passengers nor cargo, other than cargo carried by the pilot. A secondary duty to take into account the reasonable interests of general and business aviation is unlikely to make a material difference, having regard to the very small percentage of such flights to regulated airports.

The Bill recognises that conflicts may arise between the interests of different users of air transport services. In such cases, the CAA has very wide discretion to decide whose interests it should further. Against this background, we do not think that it is appropriate to give specific prominence to the interests of general and business aviation or indeed any other specific sector. For all airports, when demand is higher then capacity for finite take-off and landing slots, this is generally reflected in the fees charged. In a competitive market, an airport operator is likely to prefer to receive flights with large numbers of passengers over those with fewer passengers when this enhances its profits. The Bill will not impact the mechanism for setting airport charges at airports not deemed to have substantial market power, which is the vast majority of airports and airfields used by the general aviation community. This is a further policy reason not to pay special regard to general and business aviation.

However, the Government absolutely recognise the valuable contribution of the general and business aviation sector. The CAA’s Strategic Review of General Aviation in 2006 estimated its contribution to the UK economy at £1.4 billion per annum, a little less than the PWC report referred to—probably because different tests were applied—but still a very significant sum none the less. As noble Lords have observed, it delivers important services such as search and rescue, mail delivery, life-saving organ transport, law enforcement, aerial survey and environmental protection flights, as well as underpinning the training of future pilots. It also has growing economic importance for the European manufacturing industry. I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to my noble friends Lord Rotherwick, Lord Trefgarne and Lord Goschen, who miss no opportunity to promote the needs of general aviation.

The noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, mentioned hot air balloons. I like seeing hot air balloons in the summer in the countryside, but my wife has declined to take a ride in one for the reasons that noble Lords have identified. The noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, will know that aviation safety is covered by other legislation but is policed by the CAA as the safety regulator.

The Government are currently developing a long-term strategy for sustainable aviation in the UK. A formal consultation document is due to be published later this summer, when the general aviation community and other aviation stakeholders will be invited to comment. However, I believe that these amendments would create unnecessary ambiguity and ask my noble friend to withdraw or not to move them at the appropriate point.

Amendment 11 seeks to introduce a new clause after Clause 1 that would place a requirement on the CAA to publish a statement of policy setting out how it plans to carry out its functions as set out in Clause 1. I understand that the intention of this amendment may be to be ensure transparency in the CAA’s exercise of its new duties. The Bill as drafted provides a clear primary duty to end-users that the CAA supports. However, there are several reasons why I do not think this amendment will work in practice. First, the amendment as drafted requires the CAA to prepare and publish the statement of its policy with respect to carrying out its functions under Clause 1. However, the CAA has no functions under Clause 1; rather, Clause 1 sets outs the way in which it must carry out its functions under Chapter 1. The amendment as drafted would appear to have no effect. In view of this, I hope the noble Lord will withdraw his amendment.

[Lord Rotherwick]

I thank all noble Lords who took part in this debate and I thank the Minister for his response, although it was not very helpful and rather disappointing. He was not able to offer me much comfort for my amendments. Bearing in mind what he said about consulting later on promoting and safeguarding airports, it would certainly be helpful to sit down with him and his Bill team to find out whether we could get additional comfort.

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, I would be delighted to continue to work closely with my noble friend on the issue of general aviation.

[Lord Rotherwick]

I am very grateful for that because it has taken us a generation to have vehicle for this and we do not want to miss it. Perhaps I could talk to him a bit later. I am interested in our not giving a negative statement to the European business community, saying that the UK is not open for aviation in all its diversity. As saturation takes up the three main airports, and then the next five, there needs to be an aviation infrastructure left for the rest of the aviation community to flow into. I thank the noble Lord for all his help on this and beg leave to withdraw.

Amendment 3 withdrawn.