Draft Airports Commission Appraisal Framework (for consultation)
This draft Appraisal Framework sets out in detail how the Airports Commission expects the short-listed scheme designs for additional airport capacity announced in December to be developed, and how the schemes will be appraised. This consultation invites responses on the draft framework which consists of 4 inter-related elements:
- the Commission’s objectives, against which options will be assessed and on which its final recommendations will be based
- a refreshed scheme design for each short-listed option, to be used as the starting point for appraisal
- a business case and sustainability assessment for each option, incorporating the information needed to make informed assessments against the Commission’s objectives
- a set of appraisal modules explaining the methodologies that the Commission proposes to use in assessing options
Each of these is described in more detail in the report, and the Commission welcomes views on its suggested approach in each case (whilst noting that the requirement to develop business cases and sustainability assessments for each option is prescribed by its terms of reference).
The consultation period will run until 28 February 2014. Consultation responses , with a suggested maximum length of 30 pages, should be sent to [email protected]. The consultation questions are listed in Appendix C of the report or shown below:
- Are the objectives stated in the the draft appraisal framework suitable for assessing the short-listed options? If not please explain why not, and suggest any alterations you feel would make them more suitable.
- Are there any other objectives that the Commission should consider, and if so what are they?
- Will the appraisal modules described in the draft appraisal framework be sufficient to analyse the short-listed options against the stated objectives? If not please explain why not, and provide examples or evidence to support your answer.
- Will the appraisal modules described in the draft appraisal framework be sufficient to construct business cases and sustainability assessments to enable the Commission to make recommendations and the Government to act on these? If not please explain why not, and provide examples or evidence to support your answer.
- Are the five components of the updated scheme design set out in the draft appraisal framework suitable for understanding schemes’ potential performance against the stated objectives? If not, please suggest any modifications that you think would make them more suitable.
- Is the level of detail in the components for the updated scheme design set out in the draft appraisal framework appropriate given the likelihood that some schemes may not progress to full stages of development? Please provide examples or evidence to support your answer.