Contents
SASIG 2014/15 Meeting Date
Regional News
Industry News
Parliamentary News
Government News
House of Commons Written Statement
House of Lords Written Question
Media News
SASIG 2014/15 Meeting Date
6 March 2015
Meetings are held at Local Government House, Smith Square, SW1P 3HZ, location map.
Regional News
24 November 2014 – A survey in the Horley area of Surrey has found that the majority of the town’s residents are against expansion at Gatwick Airport. Following the findings, Horley Town Council – which commissioned the survey – has formally opposed any proposed expansion at the airport. Out of the 1,096 respondents, 368 (34 per cent) were in favour of a second runway, while 615 (56 per cent) were against, and 113 (10 per cent) were not sure. The most common reason residents gave against expansion was ‘Gatwick’s second runway will increase noise levels’, followed by concerns over traffic and road congestion.
24 November 2014 – Changes in Gatwick flight paths have prompted Kent County Council to withdraw its support for a second runway at the West Sussex airport. Council leader Paul Carter said the new flight paths had made life intolerable for people living in the Bidborough, Chiddingstone and Speldhurst areas. The council previously support the second runway in its report, ‘Bold Steps for Aviation’, published in May 2012. A statement from Gatwick Airport said it regretted the council had reversed its decision.
24 November 2014 – Fleetwood town Councillor Jack Harrison is asking for Wyre Council to work with Blackpool and Fylde councils to re open Blackpool Airport.
24 November 2014 – The Newquay Cornwall Airport Masterplan is being reviewed to consider the changes in the aviation environment over the last 5 years; how the Airport can be developed to help grow Cornwall’s economy and how it can be more commercially and environmentally self-sustaining. The public is being asked to comment on the refreshed plans as a 6 week public consultation is launched with a two day event to be held in the Airport terminal.
26 November 2014 – Newcastle International Airport is the first airport in the UK to achieve Category III status for the use of forward scatter meter runway visual range equipment. Airport landing equipment is ranked dependent on the level of visibility it can operate in- from category I through to III. Until now, forward scatter meters, a piece of technology that measures runway visibility, have been approved only for use in supporting Category I operations. However, following a successful trial early this year, Newcastle Airport and air traffic engineers at NATS have been able to prove that the technology can also provide the level of accuracy required for more demanding Category III operations.
26 November 2014 – Uttlesford District Council has dismissed Stansted Airport’s draft Sustainable Development Plan as lacking in detail. The council has said that it wants more in-depth technical data from owner Manchester Airports Group before it can make a proper assessment. Stansted Parish Council has also criticised the plan.
27 November 2014 – The airline operator Flybe has signed a new codeshare agreement with airline operator Aer Lingus for flights from Southampton Airport to the United States. This enables Southampton passengers to access, via a single stop in Dublin, a range of destinations across North America including Boston, New York, San Francisco, Orlando, Chicago and Toronto.
27 November 2014 – Member of Parliament for Spelthorne Kwasi Kwarteng said he had always been ‘blatantly’ in favour of expanding at Heathrow Airport due to the economic benefits.
27 November 2014 – Chief Executive of Newcastle International Airport David Laws is lobbying the Government to protect it from a possible cut to Air Passenger Duty in Scotland following the recommendations of the Smith Commission. The Commission report has recommended that the Scottish Parliament be given the power to alter Airport Passenger Duty locally. Mr Laws has said that passenger numbers and jobs at Newcastle Airport would be threatened as a result.
28 November 2014 – At a public meeting in Putney Heathrow Airport’s Sustainability Director Matt Gorman defended the airport’s claims about the numbers of people who would be affected by aviation noise should they be given permission to expand. Mr Gorman said that Wandsworth’s flight path communities would not continue to get a half day respite period if the airport is given permission to build a third runway. Mr Gorman also repeated Heathrow’s claim that fewer people in London will be affected by noise if Heathrow expands. This is despite new flight paths being created and the number of flights increasing from 480,000 to 740,000 per year. Leader of Wandsworth Council Ravi Govindia and Chairman of the campaign group Hacan John Stewart were also in attendance. The meeting was chaired by Member of Parliament for Putney Justine Greening.
30 November 2014 – Member of Parliament for Arundel and South Downs Nick Herbert, has written about a meeting with the Chief Executive of Gatwick Airport Stewart Wingate, stating his displeasure with the routes adopted during the recent airspace trials at the airport. Mr Herbert said that he is ‘pleased that the airport agreed that the concentration of flights in a new route over Wisborough Green and neighbouring areas was unfair. The trial has ended and they are now discussing the next steps with the regulatory authorities. I will continue to make the case strongly that the trial route was unacceptable and that it must not be implemented’.
Industry News
24 November 2014 – French airline operator La Compagnie running all-business class transatlantic flights is reported to be seeking rights to fly from Gatwick. The carrier started all-business class flights from Paris Charles de Gaulle to Newark in July using a single Boeing 757-200 six times a week.
24 November 2014 – The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the Airport Operators Association (AOA) have developed a set of key principles and recommended practices to help airports check they have the right type of procedures and plans in place to deal with disruption, and provide useful suggestions and reassurance as to how airports can plan ahead. The CAA state that they believe this will help ensure that passengers get the outcomes they expect when travelling by air. It is anticipated that the guidance sets out key principles and recommended practices to help airports work effectively in partnership with airlines, ground handlers and the many other organisations working within airports so they are better prepared for large disruption and can manage it effectively when it does occur. The guidance is also a reminder of the practical steps airports can take to make sure they are prepared for bad weather and protect their passengers. The CAA worked with the Airport Operators Association (AOA) to produce the guidance, which is aimed at UK airports with over 1m passengers per year, and reflects many of the existing practices at such airports. For the majority of airports, the guidance is voluntary as the CAA has no powers to regulate resilience measures at airports except Gatwick and Heathrow, which have recently published resilience plans as part of their licence conditions. The key principles cover collaboration with other organisations operating at airports; identification and management of potential risks; planning and deploying contingency measures; communication with passengers so they know their rights and the latest situation; practicing the procedures they have in place to make sure they are fit for purpose; and learning lessons from past experiences.
24 November 2014 – London City Airport recorded its busiest ever week in November 2014.
Parliamentary News
25 November 2014 – During a meeting of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee on tourism MP’s heard evidence on issues such as UK Tourism, regional airline connexions, reputation of the UK, impact of abolishing or devolving APD, engagement with the Government, impact of abolishing APD on revenue, and abolishing APD for children. Giving evidence were: British Air Transport Association Chief Executive Nathan Stower; Virgin Atlantic General Manager of Government and External Relations Sian Foster; and Airport Operators Association Chief Executive Darren Caplan. A summary of the session is presented below.
UK tourism falling behind
Mr Stower told Conservative MP Angie Bray that the UK air industry had had a difficult time in recent years, especially in established and stable markets such as the US. Ms Foster highlighted the barriers to entry posed by the British visa system, and that the UK needed to ensure it was competing properly for international tourism. Mr Caplan claimed that the UK had slipped into eighth place as a tourist destination behind Turkey and Germany, meaning that the Government’s ambition of being a top-five tourist destination was not being met. He added that whilst the UK’s numbers were increasing, they were falling back relative to their competitors.
Potential solution
Better policies on visas, connectivity and Air Passenger Duty (APD) could all help to improve the UK’s competitiveness internationally, he explained, highlighting the very high upfront costs faced by Chinese tourists seeking to come to the UK. Ms Foster acknowledged that there were a variety of underlying causes of the UK’s underperformance in the tourism sector, but reducing APD was a simple and practicable measure. Mr Stower concurred, emphasising that it was a matter both of the product on offer and the price.
In response to a further question from Ms Bray, Mr Caplan said that he did not believe there should be prioritisation between inbound and outbound flights, or internal and international. ‘We should all be encouraging as much activity as possible’, he added. Mr Stower and Ms Foster concurred, emphasising that airlines wanted their planes full in both directions.
Ms Foster also claimed that, although cutting APD would allow more Britons to go abroad, it would lead to even more foreign visitors coming to Britain, resulting in a net positive outcome for the UK.
Regional airline connexions
The panel agreed with Ms Bray that it was important to encourage tourists to travel beyond London, which was overwhelmingly the gateway for international tourists. The cost of travelling within the UK discouraged tourists from exploring the UK beyond London, claimed Labour MP Jim Sheridan, and he asked whether the tourist industry was lobbying for more direct international flights to Britain’s other airports. Ms Foster explained that they catered to demand and kept the viability of other routes under review, but that they could not assign half a plane to a route and any route needed to be commercially viable.
Mr Stower also made the point that airlines responded to demand, and that it was for the Government to craft policies that made direct international routes to Britain’s secondary airports commercially sustainable. Ms Foster told Mr Sheridan that the arguments for devolving APD to Scotland and cutting it applied equally well to the UK as a whole.
In response to a question from Liberal Democrat MP John Leech, Mr Stower claimed that regional connexions into hub airports like Heathrow had reduced dramatically since the 1960s, and that if more capacity was viable airlines would try to reverse this trend. Mr Caplan told Mr Leech that the problem of airport capacity was a national issue, rather than one for the South East alone.
Reputation of the UK
The reputation of British airports was generally positive, he added, and the debate around capacity had not damaged it. A more important issue was border control, with queues and delays often perceived as an airport issue rather than a Home Office problem. Ms Foster concurred that there was an international perception that getting into the UK was difficult, and that this deterred potential tourists. Sometimes issues like the UK’s immigration debate could get into the national press abroad and add to an impression of unfriendliness, Mr Stower added.
Impact of abolishing or devolving APD
In response to a question from Conservative MP Tracey Crouch, Mr Stower cited international data which showed that the UK was the least competitive country in the world on airline taxation. Only five EU countries had a departure tax at all and others were half the level of the UK’s, he added. Ms Foster did not agree with Ms Crouch’s suggestion that a cut in, or the abolition of, APD would not boost the tourism industry – it was possible that regional airports were losing international routes because of competitiveness within the airline industry, Ms Crouch claimed, although Mr Caplan highlighted how variations in APD had directly affected the international routes run out of Belfast International. If APD was devolved to the regions many regional airports might be rendered uncompetitive, Ms Foster reported. Mr Stower reported that there was international evidence of a direct impact on APD levels on passenger behaviour, whilst Mr Caplan highlighted the fact that the Netherland’s experienced a boost in Treasury revenue after scrapping APD.
Abolishing APD for children
Abolishing APD for children under-12 would be a small cost to the Treasury and provide a concrete boon to travelling families, claimed Mr Stower. Ms Foster explained that 12 was the international industry standard for child fares. Since airlines had to pass on savings from tax cuts for the consumer even airlines which did not offer child fares would see children travel cheaper if APD was abolished for them. Although there was some conflict between the age of child fares and limitations on unaccompanied minors, Ms Foster reiterated the importance of operating a model that was accessible to the many international providers who flew into the UK.
Impact of abolishing APD on revenue
Ms Crouch suggested that cutting VAT would boost the British tourism industry whilst cutting APD would benefit British tourists. Mr Stower pointed out that whilst both taxes were a tax on tourism APD was also a tax on business travel and a broader spectrum of economic activity. He added that, according to a PWC report, scrapping APD would lead to a short-term shortfall but a long-term increase in Treasury revenue, which would be in effect by 2016. Mr Caplan claimed that the Treasury would make back the ‘hit’ it took by scrapping APD by year five of abolition. The Treasury had a safety net because it could keep the impact of abolishing APD under review and reintroduce it if necessary, Ms Foster told Mr Sheridan. She also made the case to him that, according to the PWC report, the additional revenue generated would not necessitate public spending reductions as a result of cutting taxes.
Engagement with the Government
The panel told Conservative MP Conor Burns that they had had positive engagement with John Penrose when he was tourism minister, but they had not met the current holder of that office. The panel reported more positive engagement with the Treasury.
In response to a question from Ms Crouch about whether tourism was in the wrong department, given the panel’s engagement with a number of other departments, Mr Stower claimed to be sceptical of simply moving the same personnel from one department to another. Mr Caplan claimed that several important areas like connectivity were not on the Department’s website, and alleged that whilst it had previously been proactive in inviting his industry to round tables and other events, that had not happened in recent years. Of the panel, only Mr Caplan could name Helen Grant as the Tourism Minister and he was not certain.
25 November 2014 – During a meeting of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee on tourism, Members heard evidence on issues such as, structural problems for British tourism, the role of Government, the Campaign’s Statistics and the impact on the Treasury. Giving evidence at the session were: Cut Tourism VAT Campaign Chairman Graham Wason; Cut Tourism VAT Campaign Director David Bridgford; and British Association of Leisure Parks, Piers and Attractions Chief Executive Paul Kelly
Structural problems for British tourism
Conservative MP Angie Bray asked the panel for an overview of tourism in the UK. Mr Wason claimed that whilst the UK had a good tourism product it was hampered by a system that was not as supportive as it might. Mr Kelly explained that whilst some areas did very well, such as London, other areas could do a lot better.
Access and price competitiveness make it easier for people to consider going overseas than for overseas visitors to come to Britain, argued Mr Bridgford, and although it was improving in absolute terms the relative performance of British tourism was declining. Structural issues such as VAT were an impediment to improved performance. London was a gateway for foreign tourists but not for domestic tourists, Mr Wason reminded the Committee. He further mooted that since the abolition of Regional Development Agencies, tourism had fallen off the agenda in many parts of the UK. Mr Kelly concurred that the quality of tourism provision was incredibly patchy, even between individual towns.
There are only six constituencies in the UK where tourism accounts for less than five per cent of the economy, reported Mr Wason, although the South West was the pre-eminent tourist region.
In response to a suggestion from Ms Bray that the South West’s climate might be the cause of that, he pointed out that the UK overall did not have a climate to match those of Mediterranean countries yet it still managed to compete with them.
The role of Government
Asked by Labour MP Ben Bradshaw why the Government was lavishing attention on the creative industries but not tourism, Mr Wason made the case that tourism was a less glamorous industry and, being comprised primarily of SMEs, was harder to engage with.
Current Government structures were not helpful, and the fact that the word tourism did not appear in the title of the Department, or even the relevant minister, was emblematic of the problem.
Mr Bridgford explained that they perceived the Government to think of tourism as a ‘quaint little cottage industry’. The fragmented and complex nature of the rail ticket booking system was only part of a wider problem with a variety of transport methods across the UK, claimed Mr Kelly. The UK was losing market share in terms of international visitors, especially from China, both to European rivals and the United States. Countries like the US and Australia had gone out of their way to make their visa system friendly and accessible to tourists, Mr Bridgford reported. He then told Liberal Democrat MP John Leech that the UK was losing ground both from established visitor markets like America and new ones.
Mr Wason explained to Labour MP Jim Sheridan that the Cut Tourism VAT campaign did not get involved in matters like airports policy. He then told Conservative MP Conor Burns how initially productive interactions with the Department and the Treasury three and a half years ago had since been curtailed. He confirmed to Mr Burns that the present minister responsible for tourism did not consider lobbying for the tourism industry to be within her remit.
Mr Kelly reported that since the recession, ‘staycation’ tourism was on the increase and the domestic visitor sector was experiencing growth. It was important for the best practise of those local authorities which were properly supporting their local tourism sector to be replicated across the country, and there needed to be a ‘central will’ from the Department or whoever was responsible to help that happen.
The Campaign’s Statistics
Previously the English Tourist Board would have taken examples of best practice to Local Enterprise Partnerships to aid this process, Mr Wason told Labour MP Gerry Sutcliffe. He added that cutting tourism VAT would help Yorkshire and Humberside to generate more than 10,500 jobs.
Ms Crouch asked for details about how the campaign’s statistics were reached and what the margin of error was. Mr Wason explained that they were based on a Deloitte report and outlined how the report had estimated the impact of cutting tourism VAT on a variety of sectors and regions on a year-by-year basis. He claimed that it was ‘as robust as you can get’ when modelling a theoretical case, and he highlighted the actions of the Republic of Ireland in setting divergent rates of VAT for tourism and the positive outcomes that resulted from that. He told Ms Crouch that all but two of the seventeen countries examined in the report were EU countries, and that tourism was one of the industries that the EU permitted to receive specific VAT reductions. Countries such as Germany and Luxembourg had tourism VAT rates in the single figures, Mr Wason explained. The campaign had chosen the same VAT rate as the UK’s present reduced rate, five per cent, in order to accord with the Government’s preference for tax simplicity, although it would be possible to set a separate and higher rate if the Government so wished.
Impact on the Treasury
Applying the same cut to catering and restaurants would lead to a much steeper initial reduction in VAT receipts, and food was not an area in which the UK was strongly internationally competitive, so the campaign had not included those industries in its proposed cut.
Conservative Committee Chair John Whittingdale asked if the campaigners could understand why a move that would add £650 million to the deficit in year one would not be smiled upon by the Treasury, to which Mr Wason pointed out that the Treasury was already considering a variety of other similar investment measures to boost UK growth. Tourism generated further business for sectors such as retail, and the VAT cut would generate a £4 billion boost to the general economy, Mr Wason claimed.
The Chair pointed out that every tax cutting campaigning claimed that the cut would eventually generate more revenue than it lost and the Treasury was naturally sceptical of such claims. The case for cutting VAT rather than Air Passenger Duty (APD) was compelling, claimed Mr Wason, and Mr Kelly explained that VAT was more likely to benefit local attractions around the country than an APD cut.
28 November 2014 – Early day motion 575 – London City Airport was put down on 28 November 2014 by John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead, Labour): That this House notes with concern proposed measures by City of London Airport to revise flight paths in and out of the airport; recognises that, under the proposals, air traffic will be concentrated over a narrower corridor, affecting many residents profoundly; further notes the lamentable lack of engagement with elected representatives and residents’ groups; and calls on City Airport to devise a more equitable solution to address the distribution of aircraft noise. The motion has been signed by eight MPs.
Government News
13 November 2014 – The Department for Transport (DfT) have released a ‘Consultation on the appraisal process for start-up aid for airports with less than 3mppa’.
In the 2014 Budget, the Chancellor of the Exchequer further increased the support for regional air connectivity to London from £10 million to £20 million per annum, and extended the fund to include start-up aid for new routes from regional airports which handle fewer than five million passengers per year.
Start-up aid will allow the Government to provide financial assistance to an airline for a maximum of three years to support the establishment of a new route that will facilitate economic growth in the region served by the airport. Any aid provision will be subject to the 2014 EC aviation State aid guidelines for airports and airlines.
The DfT have submitted a draft Protocol to the European Commission (EC) that provides a framework of rules and guidance for aid that can be provided to airlines for new routes from airport of fewer than 3 million passengers per annum.
Upon clearance of this Protocol by the EC, the UK Government can award aid in respect to routes from airports handling fewer than 3 million passengers per annum
The Department have therefore developed an Appraisal Framework that will allow it to evaluate bids received against the aims of the fund to determine whether a scheme should receive funding and in cases where funding requests exceed the funding available it will allow the Department to rank scheme to determine which schemes should receive funding.
The consultation will run until 11 December. Full details of the consultation, including the consultation document, are available on the Publications page of the SASIG website here.
24 November 2014 – The Government have published the ‘Consultation Response Document: Implementing the Aviation EU Emissions Trading System Regulation (421/2014) in UK Regulations’. This report summarises responses to the Department for Energy and Climate Change consultation on the proposed amendments to the UK regulations which cover the Aviation EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS). The full report is available here on the Government website.
27 November 2014 – The Smith Commission has published its report into the further devolution of powers to the Scottish Parliament. The full report is available here. The Smith Commission, chaired by Lord Smith of Kelvin, was setup by the Prime Minister in September following the Scottish referendum. The report states with regards aviation:
‘The power to charge tax on air passengers leaving Scottish airports will be devolved to the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish Government will be free to make its own arrangements with regard to the design and collection of any replacement tax, including consideration of the environmental impact. In line with the approach taken in relation to the Scotland Act 2012, if such a tax is introduced by the Scottish Parliament to replace Air Passenger Duty (APD), the Scottish Government will reimburse the UK Government for any costs incurred in ‘switching off’ APD in Scotland. A fair and equitable share of associated administrative costs will be transferred to the Scottish Government. The Scottish Government’s block grant will be adjusted in line with the principles set out in paragraph 95 to accommodate the devolution of APD’.
27 November 2014 – The Government have published the report ‘Transport resilience review: Government’s response’. The report is a response to recommendations made by the House of Commons Transport Committee in the transport resilience review, outlining actions being taken across road, rail, aviation and maritime. The document describes how the recommendations will be used by the owners and operators of our transport networks to improve resilience to extreme weather events. Among its key messages the Government have stated in the report with regards aviation that they:
- ‘see it as essential for the owners of ports and airports to ensure the resilience of supporting power, communications and IT infrastructure to flood risks’.
- ‘agree with the importance of having detailed joined-up contingency planning between airports and their major airlines’.
The full report is available here.
House of Commons Written Statement
27 November 2014 – The Secretary of State for Transport Patrick McLoughlin has made a Written Statement to the House of Commons on Transport Resilience. The statement highlights the publication of the Government’s response and accepts the recommendations made in the Review. The full statement is given below or is available here, on the Government website.
‘Following the 2013-14 winter of sustained wet and windy weather, I invited Richard Brown OBE to chair a review of the resilience of our transport networks to extreme weather events. The Review was published in July and today I am publishing the Government’s Response. Richard Brown’s Review examined the resilience of our major transport modes, assessed lessons learned and put forward more than 60 recommendations to improve resilience both in the short term and long term. The majority of recommendations quite rightly addressed the impacts of last winter’s weather which resulted in flooding, damage to transport assets and disruption to passenger services. The review did not look at the impacts of snow and ice as these were covered in the Quarmby review of 2010.
We accept the recommendations made in the Review, and the Response published today sets out in detail the actions being taken forward by Government and transport owners and operators to improve the resilience of our transport infrastructure and its operations. Good progress has been made since the Review’s publication. Wherever possible actions have been put in place in advance of this winter, whilst other resilience activities have been planned for delivery as soon as practicable. Areas covered include asset management; communications; economics and funding; flooding; geotechnics; maintenance; supporting infrastructure; user behaviour; vegetation management and weather forecasting.
Whilst there will always be vulnerabilities to our transport networks from extreme weather, the review has served to join up a lot of the existing work on resilience across transport modes and has prompted transport operators to take immediate action which should put them in an enhanced state of readiness to respond and recover from future severe weather events.
My Department will monitor the progress of the resilience activities set out in the Government response, and will provide a supplementary report next year to provide an update on the delivery of the actions highlighted in the response.
Copies of the Government Response can be found in the Libraries of both Houses and will be available at https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/review-of-the-resilience-of-the-transport network-to-extreme-weather-events-expert-panel’.
House of Lords Written Question
Jones of Moulsecoomb – Expansion of airport capacity and carbon pricing mechanism
24 November 2014
Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (Green Party peer): To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend to couple any expansion of airport capacity with the carbon pricing mechanism proposed by the Davies Commission which aims to ensure that demand remains below the level that can be supplied by the new capacity across the United Kingdom.
Baroness Kramer (Minister of State for Transport, Liberal Democrat peer): The Coalition agreement rules out current airport expansion in the South East for the life of this Parliament. To ensure our long term connectivity needs can be met, this Government established the independent Airports Commission to identify and recommend to Government options for maintaining this country’s status as an international hub for aviation. Although options for expansion have been shortlisted by the Commission for further examination, its final recommendations are not due to be published until the summer of 2015. It will be for the Government of the day to consider the environmental impacts, including CO2 emissions, of any proposed expansion with reference to the Airports Commission’s recommendations.
Media News
24 November 2014 – The campaign group ‘A Fair Tax on Flying’ have launched a campaign to get the Government to abolish Air Passenger Duty on children’s air tickets. The campaign is also supported by Manchester Airport and some Members of Parliament.
24 November 2014 – Campaign group Gatwick Area Conservation Campaign (GACC) and the Campaign Against Gatwick Noise Emissions (CAGNE) have raised new concerns about flight paths changes at the airport which could affect residents near Haywards Heath. Residents of the North Horsham area have experienced a flight path trial over the summer as part of an airspace changes by the UK Civil Aviation Authority.
27 November 2014 – The Shadow Chancellor, Transport Secretary and Business Secretary, Ed Balls, Michael Dugher and Chuka Umunna have written to the Chancellor, Secretary of State for Transport and Secretary of State for Business following the conclusion of the Smith Commission on Scottish Devolution. The letter reads – ‘All of our parties support the Smith Commission conclusions and its principle that implementation should “not cause detriment to the UK as a whole nor to any of its constituent parts.” and ”cause neither the UK Government nor the Scottish Government to gain or lose financially simply as a consequence of devolving a specific power” It is important that, in implementing the Smith recommendations in relation to Air Passenger Duty, this principle is upheld. This means ensuring that English Regional Airports are not disadvantaged. English Regional airports cannot be faced with continuing uncertainty and risk through not knowing whether they will be significantly disadvantaged should a future Scottish Government introduce changes to Air Passenger Duty. It is therefore imperative that the UK Treasury leads work across Government – and working with the Scottish Government – on a mechanism to ensure that English airports, particularly in the North of England, are not disadvantaged. We would be grateful for confirmation that this work is underway’.
SASIG Regional&IndustryNews Bulletin 24 November – 30 November
SASIG ParliamentaryNews Bulletin 24 November – 30 November
The Parliamentary information in this Bulletin is sourced from De Havilland Information Services plc.