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Civil Aviation Bill

moved Amendment No. 25:"Page 7, line 9, after ““scheme”” insert ““which shall be proportional to the noise emitted in excess of that allowed, rising in a logarithmic scale””" The noble Lord said: I wait for the Minister’s attention. This is a highly technical amendment, which I am moving to probe the Government on their thinking. Noise is measured in decibels, which is a measure of sound power. A decibel is the power exerted on the human ear by a sound wave. Strangely enough, the increase in decibels is measured on a logarithmic scale. That means that it is not a normal scale of measuring. I shall relate it to speed limits, with which the Minister is familiar. If a 30 mph speed limit is increased to 40 mph, 50 mph or 60 mph, we know what effect that has on a motorcar. If you go through a 30 mph limit at 30 mph you can expect no penalty; if you go through at 60 mph you can expect a fairly severe penalty; and if you go through at 90 mph you can probably expect to have your licence withdrawn. If you increase the output of decibels from 74 to 78, that means the sound has risen 2.51 times. If you go on to increase it to 82 decibels, it has risen 6.3 times. That is equivalent to going through a 30 mph limit at 180 mph. That is the simplest explanation that I can give of what we are talking about. If someone has increased the output of decibels from 74 to 82, he has in fact subjected you to more than six times the amount of noise. That is why aircraft noise is particularly objectionable, and it is why the measurements taken at night wake people up—they impact on them very strongly. They are not to be treated lightly. My object in moving the amendment is to ascertain whether the penalty systems that are to be designed adequately reflect the amount of noise that is created. On the face of it, the amount of noise appears small because the numbers look small—from 74 to 82 decibels—but actually the noise is increased six times. As I said, that is equivalent to going through a 30 mph limit at 180 mph, where you would almost certainly not only lose your licence but go to prison for some time. I put it to the Minister that these are important technical matters, which need to be taken into account in any penalty system that is designed. I hope that I have put the case simply. I beg to move.