Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Sugg on 13 November (HL2710), when they expect to be able to provide a final figure of the total cost to the taxpayer of repatriating to the UK passengers of Monarch Airlines; in relation to cases where there is no confidentiality clause in place, who the recipients of those repatriation costs were; what is their initial estimate of how much each of those named recipients received; why confidentiality clauses have been used in some cases; and in relation to how many recipients were such clauses used.

We are not yet able to give a final figure for the costs of the repatriation operation as we are awaiting invoices and cost recovery from third parties. This was a complex operation and aircraft and cabin crew leasing, call centres and coaches to transfer passengers between airports were among the costs.

Confidentiality clauses were used to protect commercially sensitive information in the course of planning for the repatriation operation.

In line with the usual transparency guidelines on government expenditure and financial reporting the absolute full and final position will be made clear in the annual accounts for the department, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the Air Travel Trust (ATT), which should be published in June 2018. However, I very much hope to be able to give a more refined figure for the costs of the Monarch repatriation operation much earlier.

I would refer the Noble Lord to my answer of 13 November to his previous questions.