---

Air Travel and Health (Science and Technology Committee Report)

First, I thank all those who have taken part in the debate, and my colleagues from the committee, including the many who took part by helping to write the report in the first place. I also thank the noble Lord, Lord Tyler, and the noble Earl, Lord Attlee, both of whom showed an informed and engaged interest in the issues, which we find encouraging, because occasionally we think that we are sailing in a small boat and no one can pick up our trajectory. Clearly, they have, and that is appreciated. I thank the Minister for his courteous reply. I emphasise—he might as well enjoy this—that I have heard more commendatory things said about the Government in this debate than in any other debate that I can remember on a Select Committee report. Heart should be taken from that, and I thank the Minister for his cautious, careful and almost canny response to the various issues. If I found myself striding on to an aeroplane and the noble Lord had reverted to a previous existence and was in the pilot’s seat, I might find that very reassuring. The issues that we have taken up have been well summarised, and I shall not go through them again. The committee now has a practice of returning to issues, and we will certainly return to the spread of pandemic flu and infection, which is already on our agenda in a broader sense. Clearly, the points made about the role that the airline industry can or might play in that were very important indeed. I have one final solution; to set up the equivalent of ““Oftravel””, which would do spot checks on aeroplanes. I have my inspectors’ team from hell that would move in; it would be the noble Lord, Lord Broers, with his altimeter, the noble Lord, Lord Patel, with his infection control manual and the noble Lord, Lord Haskel, as the PR man who issued the press releases afterwards. There is an issue of proportion to do with that degree of inspection, but if we do not get this right there could be disasters round the corner. On Question, Motion agreed to.