Air Traffic Management (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Wednesday 17th June 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab Co-op) [V]]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for her helpful and detailed introduction, and for her courtesy in asking us in advance whether we had any questions. I am sure that my noble friend Lord Rosser will deal with some of the more detailed, technical aspects of the regulations later on, but perhaps I may first point out that this is one of many—indeed, too many—measures that we are having to deal with because of the damaging decision to leave the European Union. They are taking up an awful lot of time in this House and in the other place. We shall be discussing another one tomorrow, on civil aviation—and that is just aviation; there are many other areas that we are taking up time discussing.

However, as a Scottish Peer who represented an Ayrshire constituency when I was in the other place, I want to take this opportunity to highlight the important role played by Prestwick air traffic management centre in supporting the smooth running of our airspace. Appropriately, this is the 10th anniversary of the opening of the new centre at Prestwick.

As the Minister will be aware, Prestwick controls air space above Scotland and the north of England, across the North Sea to the east and halfway across the Atlantic towards North America in the west. It is the biggest area of controlled air space in the European Union.

Alongside that, it also has the benefit of the most up-to-date system, iTEC, designed to increase airspace capacity, to improve safety by automatically detecting potential aircraft conflicts ahead of time and to help some aircraft reduce fuel consumption and emissions by giving pilots greater flexibility to fly the best and most direct routes, instead of following the existing network of rigid waypoints and airways, which of course is good from a climate change point of view.

The same system is also deployed at our southern air traffic management centre at Swanwick. Given the capabilities at Prestwick, it is able to take over Swanwick’s operational abilities as well as its own in the case of an emergency. What contingency measures do we have in place for any such circumstances, which, sadly, given the events of the past few years, look increasingly possible?

On another matter, the single European sky, or SES, initiative, which is relevant to these regulations, is based on improving how European airspace is managed. Its aim is to modernise Europe’s airspace structure and air traffic management technologies to ensure that forecast growth in air traffic can be met safely and sustainably while also reducing costs and improving environmental performance. All this is to ensure that Europe’s aviation industry remains globally competitive. With the United Kingdom set, sadly, to be no longer part of the SES, I am keen to understand what arrangements the Government have in place to work with the European Union to improve airspace management, given the vast array of expertise and technologies that are available. The Minister may have covered this in her introduction, but I was not too clear as to whether she did. With this in mind, can she tell the House whether a new agreement between the United Kingdom and the European Union similar to the existing open skies agreement will be established? I look forward to her reply at the end of this debate.