My Lords, I must apologise. I have just come back from a foreign trip and picked up a rather bad cold; I am sorry about that. I wish to speak to Amendment 60 because we had an excellent discussion in Committee about environmental issues in the Bill. This evening, at the start of our debate, we touched on the importance of environmental issues. We acknowledge again how grateful we are for the Government accepting our earlier amendments because we think that it is important that we get this one right.
Amendment 60 would place a general environmental duty on the CAA requiring it, in the process of carrying out its functions,
“where possible and appropriate, have regard for the effect on the environment and on local communities of activities connected with the provision of airport operation services and air transport services”.
We covered the subject in some detail in Committee, and I was delighted that we received considerable support for Amendment 69, as it was numbered then. I am sad that the noble Earl, Lord Cathcart, is not here this evening to contribute to this debate, because he made such an excellent contribution to our Committee discussions. He pointed out, and I repeat, that in 2007, when Sir Joseph Pilling conducted a strategic review of the CAA, he noted that it would be a “notable gap” if there were not a general environmental duty placed on the CAA, that,
“the CAA’s responsibility is to safeguard the general public interest, which is broader than the aviation community”,
and that,
“a general statutory duty in relation to the environment”,
would be a good idea. That is what we sought to achieve in Committee and seek again to do here with Amendment 60: introduce a general environmental duty.
It has been said before, but I will say it again: there are precedents for such regulation. Our other economic regulators have such duties. The Office of Rail Regulation’s duties include,
“to have regard to the effect on the environment of activities connected with the provision of railway services”
and,
“to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development”.
Ofgem’s duties include to,
“have regard to the effect on the environment”,
of activities connected with, the generation and supply of electricity. There is something similar in the duties of Ofgas and Ofwat. Pretty much all the economic regulators which govern sectors with an environmental impact have that duty. Why should we not have such a duty in the Bill? There is widespread support for it and I think it is essential.
In its response to the Committee, the Minister said that he did not see the need for an environmental duty because it would apply to only three airports in the country. That may be true of the clauses that we discussed earlier, but in this case, when we are talking about general duties on the CAA, it would apply to the whole sector. That is very important. I wait to hear the noble Earl’s response to the amendment.
I finish by reiterating what I said earlier. Aviation is an important sector. It has a unique position in its environmental impact. Some of its activities are included in our carbon budgets, some are not. We look forward to the Government deciding whether they will move to include all aviation emissions in the carbon budgets. At the moment, not to include a general environmental duty in the Bill would seem weird compared to the duties that exist for other regulators. We had widespread support for this proposal in Committee, and the Minister said that he would come back and that he hoped that we would not be disappointed before the end of our proceedings. We are reaching the final stages; currently, we are still disappointed, although we recognise the concessions made this evening. We hope that a general environmental duty will be included; that is the strongest signal that we can send that we take these issues seriously and place a great deal of importance on them. I beg to move.
7.15 pm