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Civil Aviation Bill

I hope that the hon. Gentleman will bear with me while I finish this point. My hon. Friend the Member for Hayes and Harlington made an important point about the World Health Organisation’s guidelines on night noise. We must remember how subjective people’s judgments can be, and how important it is to address this issue while taking account of the economy and trying to strike the balance that I have been talking about. The WHO guideline values on aircraft noise were recommended as long-term targets for improving health, and the values are very low. We also support the WHO conclusions for regular reviews and revisionsto the guidelines as new scientific evidence emerges. The guidelines also recommend that cost-effectivenessand cost-benefit analyses should be considered when making management decisions relating to their implementation. The Government are carrying out this process as part of the regulatory impact assessment of the restrictions, which my hon. Friend the Member for Hayes and Harlington might find interesting. I want to return to the effect of the number of movements and of overall noise levels on disturbance. I know that hon. Members will want to hear the important points that I have to make on this matter, because of the concerns that they have raised this evening. It is worth emphasising that research has suggested that the incidence of sleep disturbance is especially associated with the loudest noise events, and in particular those that produce more than a 90 dB sound exposure level. The hon. Member for Windsor mentioned this issue before, saying that it was all very complicated and that he wanted a simple solution to the matter. However, the issue of disturbance is always complex, in that it affects different individuals in different ways. I can assure the hon. Gentleman, however, that these matters have also been raised with me as a constituency MP, and I am well aware of the representations that can be made about them.