(12 years, 3 months ago)
Commons ChamberIn order not to prolong the debate, and to give the hon. Gentleman time to speak later, I will not respond to his intervention.
The report suggests that, as a result of air passenger duty, 2 million fewer passengers will fly from Scotland from 2016 onwards. That is a fair number of passengers, given the number of people who fly. There are other reasons to believe that the problem is more serious in the regions than it is in the south-east of England, but I will not go into them in depth now. Our report recommended that the Treasury and the industry come together to undertake a comprehensive study. I would echo today’s calls that, until such an assessment is made, APD should be frozen.
I shall briefly mention VAT and fuel duty. If either were to be imposed on aviation fuel, the airlines—and not just those based in the UK—would go abroad for their fuel in order not to have to face that problem. Buying it here would simply no longer be an earner. I put it to the Minister that any suggestion of such an imposition should be studied in much greater detail. Indeed, fuel is not taxed for other forms of transport in the UK. There are a number of unconvincing arguments. One is that whereas the UK does not levy VAT on domestic flights, international air travel is generally VAT-exempt in many other countries. There are all sorts of other things that have to be brought into the picture. The aviation sector has no competitive advantage over other forms of public transport.
Let me look at the question of tax and tax avoidance. There is a good deal of evidence coming to the fore to suggest that families, instead of travelling out of the UK long haul, are travelling to other hub airports in mainland Europe and even further afield. As a consequence, the Treasury will lose the business and “Air UK” will lose the business.
Is my hon. Friend aware that travel agents throughout Scotland—and, I suspect, in the north-east, where the regional airports are based—are now actively encouraging people to go via Europe because it will save them quite a bit of money? For a family like mine, going to America otherwise means paying £1,000 extra.
I am very grateful to my hon. Friend, but he is eating into my time and I have to be careful in that what happens in that respect has already been mentioned. I am told that up to £380 extra per person might need to be spent in those circumstances.
In conclusion, as we know from the length of the Davies commission, the Government appear to be in no rush to address the competitiveness problems of the UK aviation industry, which are impacting on the whole of our economy. The abolition or reduction of APD has the potential to make the UK more internationally competitive. As a minimum, I urge the Minister’s Department to undertake research to find out what the impact of APD has been on the aviation industry and what it means for that industry.