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Civil Aviation Bill

As a former Transport Minister, I particularly welcome amendment 11. It will also be very much welcomed by the Sikh community, especially, and fortuitously, at this time of the Sikh festival of Vaisakhi, which Members of Parliament from both sides of the House celebrated with the community last night here in the Palace of Westminster. As colleagues have said, the Sikh community has historically served this country very well and is now an enormously important and dynamic part of our community, both in business and in many of the professions. The Sikh community have expressed their concerns, particularly about the handling of the turban at airports, but throughout these discussions—I was involved as a Minister in previous iterations—they have always made it clear that they fully accept the need for security and, therefore, ask, ““How do we achieve that?”” within the sensitivities of their religion. My right hon. Friend the Member for Wolverhampton South East (Mr McFadden) highlighted how in this country we have approached the matter intelligently, and, whether in relation to motorcycles, the police, the Army or a number of other areas, we have obtained an accommodation at the same time as maintaining a necessary and appropriate standard. Wand and swab technology has also been mentioned, and that would enable us to achieve exactly the same position—achieving and maintaining not only security but a sensitive approach. The Department's officials have a long history of wanting trials and experiments to go on for far too long—we saw it with hard-shoulder running—but, if the current trials are showing a positive outcome, I hope that we can report on them early and look at any necessary roll-out. I recognise the particular difficulties that we face, however, and they have been alluded to in other contributions. In European countries with relatively small Sikh populations, the community's concerns do not register, so there is a particular responsibility on this country, on its civil servants and on Ministers to be alert to that at an early stage. On several occasions, we have had to respond to regulations that have been introduced and, then, to try and unravel them. It is much better if we look at the issue at an early stage and ensure that any regulations that are introduced do not impact negatively on the community. As I said in an intervention, new clause 3 would not only provide focus in the Department, but reinforce the arguments that it, of necessity, has to have with Commission officials and its counterparts in other countries in order to ensure that the very real and genuine concerns of this very important community are understood and acted upon.