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Civil Aviation Bill

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell), who says that if consultation is to be meaningful,the Government must listen. We know, of course, that the Government do listen. My concern is who they are listening to on this occasion. It is pretty clear that they have not been listening to the hon. Gentleman’s constituents, those of my hon. Friend the Member for Richmond Park (Susan Kramer) or those of the hon. Member for Windsor (Adam Afriyie). The Government have been listening to the airline operators. It is clear on this issue that the Department for Transport has become a wholly owned subsidiary of the airline industry. That is who the Government are listening to—not the people who are suffering from the disruption and whose lives and property prices are being blighted by the increase in airline movement at night. I shall not detain the House by rehearsing arguments already made. A numerical cap has one overall advantage: it is completely transparent and understandable. Concepts such as quotas or noise footprints, such as those outlined by the hon. Member for Canterbury (Mr. Brazier), are opaque. Nobody can have any confidence that such measures, once put in place, are properly observed. A numerical cap may have disadvantages—as my hon. Friend the Member for Richmond Park said, many communities living close to airports would rather there were no night flights at all—but it has the advantage of clarity.