Civil Aviation Bill

Debate between Chris Heaton-Harris and Mark Reckless

Monday 30th January 2012 Commons Chamber

[Chris Heaton-Harris (Daventry) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to take part in a debate that has featured a sparkling maiden speech from the hon. Member for Feltham and Heston (Seema Malhotra). I spent a great deal of time in what is now her constituency, trying to ensure that she did not get the job. My wife lived there when we were courting, and I know it reasonably well. I know, too, how important the biggest airport in the country is to the constituency, and how many people work there. I know that she will be a very good champion of all her constituents, and I congratulate her again on her maiden speech.

It is also a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Witham (Priti Patel), who reminded us of the importance of runways in the context of aviation. There was an incident not so along ago when a jet coming into Heathrow did not quite make it, and that proved that runways are all-important.

Let me record my sympathy for the Minister of State, Department for Transport, my right hon. Friend the Member for Chipping Barnet (Mrs Villiers), who was to have responded to the debate. I hope that I am correct in describing her as a right hon. Member. If she is not one, she should be, for she is excellent. Unfortunately, in a bid to become road safety Minister, she was injured in a cycling accident and is undergoing surgery.

As we have heard from Members on both sides of the House, including the hon. Member for Feltham and Heston and my hon. Friend the Member for Tamworth (Christopher Pincher), aviation plays a critical role in UK plc. My constituency, which is in the heart of the midlands, near junctions 15 to 19 of the M1—anyone who remembers seeing the old Rugby radio mast while driving up the M1 will know where it is—is now typified by a number of jobs that rely on the aviation industry. It is a hub for all the cargo that is shipped up from Heathrow, down from East Midlands airport and across from Birmingham. It is because so many jobs in my constituency rely on the aviation industry that I wanted to speak in the debate.

However, aviation is important to the economy in many other ways. I was recently lucky enough to travel to Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Georgia. All the people whom I met in those growing economies had this in common: they were desperate to come to the city of London, and, if they had any money, they wanted to spend it here. We need a gateway that can accept all those fantastic consumers of the future, and can welcome those who wish to do business with us and invest in us.

The experience at Heathrow airport is very different, however; it is a shopping centre with a couple of runways attached. For the Heaton-Harris family, getting to a gate at Heathrow airport involves an awkward shopping experience. The last flight I caught out of there cost me only a couple of hundred pounds, but the shopping experience almost trebled that. I know only too well, therefore, how much business comes from airport shops.

I have an airport in my constituency. The wonderful airport of Sywell has a rich history and an interesting and controversial present, which is why that is the only comment I shall make about it.

Turning to our country’s larger airports, much of our aviation regulation is governed by 1980s-style legislation, which is one of the reasons this Bill has been introduced. This Government and the last Government both realised it needed to be updated.

[Mark Reckless]

My hon. Friend talks of 1980s-style legislation as if it were a bad thing. Does he not remember who our Prime Minister was at that time, and might he therefore like to reconsider that remark?

[Chris Heaton-Harris]

I am suddenly enamoured with 1980s-style legislation. Indeed, I had the haircut to go with the music of that era—I had some follicles back then.

The Bill offers a package of reforms to make regulation and the sanctions that support it flexible, proportionate, targeted and effective. It proposes removing unnecessary regulation and intervention by central Government and devolving more responsibility to the independent specialist regulator, the CAA. It also seeks to make the CAA accountable and to ensure that it weighs both the costs and benefits of its decisions. Further, it proposes that some of the costs of regulating aviation should be moved from general taxation to the aviation industry, so that the people who use it, pay for it. That is the right way forward.

Above all, the Bill puts the consumer first, and I am all in favour of that. I am a regular customer of the aviation industry—although I would like to be a more regular customer—and when booked on a Ryanair flight I become the Michelin man, as I will wear all my clothes because I do not want to pay the excess sum for booking in a suitcase. I am also the man who has to repack his “smalls” in front of the waiting British Airways passenger queue because my baggage weight has exceeded the limit and the lady at the check-in desk has said, “23 kilos and a few extra grams is too much.” I am all for more deregulation and common sense in the aviation industry, therefore. It is very important that the consumer is put first in respect of the regulation of airports, which have substantial market power. The CAA’s primary duty should be to consumers. Passengers and, importantly, the owners of cargo must have a greater say.

The Bill also gives the CAA a role in promoting better public information about airline and airport performance. I support the clauses that provide that. Transparency and greater information are essential. As a consumer, I like to be able to look at relevant information and choose my airport and carrier. In that regard, the more transparency, the better.