Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to help improve (a) the timeliness of notification to airports by airlines and travel agents of passengers requiring assistance and (b) accessibility at airports.

The Government works closely with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the UK’s specialist aviation regulator, who are responsible for enforcing consumer laws, including Regulation 1107/2006 (as retained in UK law). This sets out the requirements for capturing and sharing information on assistance requests.

The CAA collect annual data on airport accessibility services, including pre-notification by airports and airlines, and will take enforcement action against individual carriers as required.

The CAA recently published an interim report on the performance of airports against its accessibility framework. The report highlighted airports requiring further improvement, and airports performing well.

The CAA will continue to monitor and work with airports to implement improvements and publish its usual annual report later this year. In addition, it will soon publish a consultation on airline accessibility which will include guidance on airlines’ obligations regarding pre-notification, amongst other requirements, and seek to assess airlines against publicly available criteria.