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Civil Aviation Bill

The noble Lord, Lord Hanningfield, is right to say that the amendment which I was forced to withdraw against my better judgment on the last occasion in Committee tackled this issue. My noble friend argued that he was bound by what the Minister said in a letter to Mr Keith Manns about this matter. It is highly complicated and we ought not to rush into solutions. Although I favour the amendment I tabled previously, and although what the noble Lord, Lord Hanningfield, has said today and previously about this issue is relevant and right, equally my noble friend is entitled to give due consideration to the very complex points that have been raised. I do not think he would say that what has been put before the Committee is wholly irrelevant; what has been raised by both me and the noble Lord, Lord Hanningfield, is highly germane to what we are considering. It may well be that we have come to the wrong conclusions. Equally my noble friend may be quite wrong. I am sure the noble Lord will agree that we have to ponder about this important issue, and we have an opportunity to do so. Whether we will bring the matter back at Report I do not know, but my noble friend has been more than generous in the time he has allocated to discussing issues which are highly important to the Bill. I know that from personal experience and I thank him for it. Equally I know it is not a question of party loyalty. I have seen people of very different parties coming to his room to put forward their submissions, whatever the subject may be, and he has been highly generous about the time given to that. The issues which have been raised today, and which I raised before, are of enormous significance and we ought to contemplate what we are going to do in our own time.