Night Flights: Impact on Communities

Debate between Richard Holden and Martin Docherty-Hughes

Tuesday 8th November 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mr Holden]

I fully take on board the hon. Lady’s points and would recommend that she takes up the opportunity to meet with Heathrow officials, who have offered to meet her, because they will be able to explain in full detail. If she wants to write to me after that meeting, I will obviously write back with as many details as I have in the Department.

We remain committed to revising our night flight dispensation guidance—perhaps the hon. Lady can also write to me about that after those meetings. This will be done following a review of the number of night flight dispensations made this summer, because it was higher. I would like to reassure the hon. Lady that all night flight dispensations granted by airport managers are subject to monitoring by the Department for Transport.

To respond to the issues the hon. Lady raised about night flights, there is a study currently under way. Exposure to aviation noise at night can impact on physical and mental wellbeing, as well as sleep disturbance. To better understand this, the Department has commissioned the aviation night noise effects study to examine the relationship between aviation noise and sleep disturbance and annoyance, and how this varies by different times of the night. The study is a collaboration between St George’s University of London, NatCen Social Research, Noise Consultants Ltd and the University of Pennsylvania. It is the first study of aviation noise effects on sleep disturbance in the UK for 30 years. The first stage of ANNE will involve a cross-section of 4,000 people who live near eight of the major UK airports, to assess the association between aircraft noise exposure at night and subjective assessments of sleep quality and annoyance.

[Martin Docherty-Hughes]

rose—

[Mr Holden]

I am very sorry, I am going to have to keep going. The second stage of the study—[Interruption.] The hon. Gentleman can write to me, as he asks from a sedentary position.

The second stage of the study will involve an observational study of individuals recruited from the survey to assess the association between aircraft noise exposure and objective sleep quality. This will involve psychological assessments of sleep disturbance and sound level measurements in participants’ bedrooms. That evidence will be used to inform future policies for night flight aviation noise exposure, and assist with the management and mitigation of health impacts on local communities, as part of a wider assessment of the costs and benefits of night flying.

In conclusion, the Government recognise that noise from aircraft taking off and landing at night is often regarded by communities as the most disturbing form of airport operations. At the same time, we live in a fully interconnected and global world, and the aviation sector has material value to the UK economy. Night flights are an important contributor to that. The Government continue to strive to find the correct balance between the negative impacts of aviation and the positive economic benefits that night flights bring to the British economy, as can be seen from the fact that we are conducting this important study. The findings of the aviation night noise effects study and the consultation on the future night flight regime will be the next steps on that important journey. I hope that, going forward, that survey will also play into our consultation on night flights.

Question put and agreed to.