Civil Aviation Bill

Iain Stewart Excerpts

Monday 30th January 2012 Commons Chamber

[Dr Julian Huppert (Cambridge) (LD)]

I do not want to disappoint the House but I am not going to speak in great detail about Cambridge international airport and the wonderful services it provides. Hon. Members can come on some other occasion to hear about that.

Changes to the regulatory framework of civil aviation are long overdue and the changes in the Bill are broadly welcome. The Bill builds on the findings of the 2008 Pilling review, which noted in particular the need to bring the legislative framework up to date. Work on the proposals began under the previous Administration and is being carried forward by the coalition, so the measures clearly have cross-party support, which I welcome. We in the Liberal Democrats particularly welcome the Government’s aspiration to put passengers at the heart of airport operations and the sections of the Bill that help to accomplish that. For too long, transport policy has been based on the top-down, central control of large systems. An effective transport system, whether for airports, trains or anything else, should be passenger-focused and should be viewed from the bottom up, so the new duty on the CAA to focus on end users is extremely welcome. Having said that, I would like to see more in the Bill about environmental considerations and I would be interested to hear whether a duty to consider such issues could be put into clauses 1 and 2, because the environmental performance of the aviation industry matters.

I should also like to know a bit more from Ministers about the measure that puts a duty on the CAA regarding

“the need to secure that all reasonable demands for airport operation services are met”.

I should particularly like to know what is reasonable. Is it reasonable for me to expect there to be flights from Cambridge international airport to any destination I choose? I presume not, but what would be a reasonable expectation?

I welcome the reforms to the air travel organisers’ licensing regime, which was put in place back in 1982. Since then, the way in which we buy holidays, and what those holidays involve, has changed dramatically. It is entirely appropriate for the Secretary of State to have the power to extend the scope of ATOL to give passengers the assurances they deserve, and it is clearly absurd that only a small proportion of holidays are covered currently and that many consumers are simply unaware whether they are protected or not. However, I am concerned that some organisations might still be excluded under the proposed changes, and I hope that it might be possible to consider going somewhat further. I believe that the Transport Committee is talking to ATOL tomorrow—

[Iain Stewart (Milton Keynes South) (Con)]

indicated assent.

[Dr Huppert]

I am grateful to see the hon. Gentleman nodding, and I hope that some of the information the Committee produces can be taken into account in the Bill.

There are some welcome provisions in the Bill that will open up Government data concerning airports. Having open public data is a key aim of the Liberal Democrats and of the coalition’s programme for Government. The CAA will be given the power to enable airports to publish data to assist passengers or potential passengers in making informed choices. The best way in which the Government can drive up standards is by empowering individuals to make informed choices, and that is what these measures will achieve. The new power for the CAA to publish information about the environmental impact of aviation is also welcome. The real costs of airplane emissions are often hidden, and the Government have a duty to make them known as a first step towards making sure that something can be done to reduce them.

Most of the changes in the Bill have been subject to extensive consultation over the many years of its gestation. Papers from the previous Administration and the coalition Government have generally had positive feedback and the recent draft Bill was broadly welcomed by the industry. However, there are some aspects of the Bill that I hope will be considered in more detail in Committee. First, it seems slightly odd that there are new powers for information regarding the environmental impact of aviation to be published but that there is no commensurate duty for the CAA to do anything about the issue after publishing that information. The CAA will have a new power to publish information to benefit passengers and a duty to work in their interests. I therefore think that the power to publish information about the environment should be matched by a duty to act on that information.

--- Later in debate ---

[Iain Stewart (Milton Keynes South) (Con)]

I draw the House’s attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests.

I welcome the chance to contribute to the debate. As a member of the Transport Committee, I was involved in the pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill. I warmly welcome it and agree with the overall objective of overhauling and modernising the system of economic regulation, which is too rigid and in need of reform. Other Members have spoken about that in detail, and I will not repeat the points that have been made, but I particularly welcome the fact that the interests of passengers will be the top priority of the CAA. It is very important to stress that point.

I wish to focus my comments on part 2 of the Bill, and specifically the clauses that will give the CAA the power to require all airports to publish information for the benefit of passengers. I strongly support that and believe that it is vital, in the interests of competition, that the correct information is easily available to passengers. As well as weighing up the performance of airlines on the convenience of flight times and on price, they should be able to weigh up the performance of airports when they make their decision about which mode of transport to choose and which airport to use.

I fully appreciate that not all air passengers have freedom of choice about which airport to use, because their geographic location may restrict them to one particular airport or their destination may be served by only one realistically close airport. However, a large number of passengers have a choice of which airport they go to.

I offer the example of Milton Keynes to illustrate that point. It does not have a local airport as such, but if I choose to visit family in Scotland, I can either choose to drive up, get the train or fly from four or five airports that are within easy travelling distance. I can use Birmingham, Luton, Heathrow or East Midlands, and even London City is not a huge travelling time away. I have used all those airports to fly up to Scotland, and their performance has varied enormously. I have had some very good experiences and some fairly hellish ones, and I found out about the airports’ performance by trial and error.

I will not name and shame the airport that was poor —[Hon. Members: “Go on!”] I shall resist the temptation, but let us just say that there was a song about it a few years ago. I do not know whether the bad experience I had was just on an off-day for the airport or whether it was part of a longer-term performance issue. Proper information should be available about the performance of an airport over time—for instance the time it takes to get through security and the time it takes passengers flying in to get through passport control. Scottish National party Members are not in their place, but I very much hope that flights from Scotland will not require passport control, as they wish. There should also be information on other issues, such as airport charges that contribute to the cost of a ticket and charges affecting passengers using the airport. Some airports levy a charge on those simply dropping travellers off at the front gate, and some charge for the little plastic bag we must put our liquids in, whereas others give them out for free. Information on such things is valuable for passengers when they are evaluating which airport to use.

Other information that should be included are airports’ records on dealing with things going wrong, be that bad weather or strikes. Airports perform differently, and passengers booking some time in advance wish for some reassurance that their interests will be looked after if things go wrong.

The requirement to publish environmental information is important, and I am glad to see it in the Bill. I am open minded about whether there should be a specific duty on environmental performance, but it is important that information on environmental performance is published so that people can choose to weigh it up when deciding how they will travel and from which airport. Transparency is the best guarantor of the objectives we want, and it is incredibly healthy to promote competition.

I am aware that different organisations have responsibility for delivering the different aspects I have described. Some aspects are the responsibility of the airports and some are the responsibility of the airlines. Different Government Departments have different duties: immigration and passport control is the duty not of the Department for Transport but of the Home Office. Due weight should be given in the published information to which part of the airline industry is responsible for providing the different services. I support the Transport Committee recommendations on those points.

As valuable as that information is, it should not be over-bureaucratic and it should not impose too great a burden on airlines or airports. I would make one suggestion: the new aviation consumer advocate panel, the role and remit of which are a little unclear at the minute, could decide what information was relevant to the interests of the passenger and what imposed too much bureaucracy and cost on airlines and airports.

I shall share one further concern: the balance of needs between current and future passengers. For all the reasons I have explained, it is important that information is available to passengers. However, it is clearly in the interests of passengers in the long term for an airport to invest heavily in new infrastructure, even if there is a short-term cost in disruption. Any information that is published should be value added in some way to show performance over a long period, not just as a snapshot.

The Bill is a good one and I welcome it. I hope the Government reflect on my suggestions as the Bill progresses through the House, but I am happy today to give it my full support.