Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the level of the contribution of the heritage aviation sector to the UK economy.

Aviation heritage plays a valuable role in our tourism economy. Events such as the Farnborough Airshow attract hundreds of thousands of tourists, and support the local economy, as well as being good for our aerospace and defence industry. My Department sponsors the Imperial War Museum at Duxford, which is visited by almost 400,000 visitors every year, and houses everything from Spitfires to Concorde.

The Heritage Lottery Fund is also open to applications which celebrate our rich aviation history. Recent recipients include Brooklands Museum in Weybridge, an historic site for aviation manufacturing and a successful tourist attraction given £4.7million, and the Stow Maries First World War Aerodrome in Essex, recently granted £4.3million to turn it into a major visitor attraction.