Lords Grand Committee — sitting of 18 June 2026: transcript & video

00:10 - 00:29

Speaker 1

My Lords, if there is a division in the chamber while we're sitting, the committee will adjourn as soon as the division bells are rung and will resume after 10 minutes. Grand Committee on the Civil Aviation Consumer Protection and Regulatory Reform Bill. In clause 4, amendment 60, Earl Russell.

00:29 - 02:30

Speaker 6

Thank you, my Lords. It's a pleasure to start this second day of Grand Committee on this bill and I open this group on airspace modernization, consultation and charging. And I move amendment 60 standing in the name of my noble friend Baroness Grender, who is unfortunately unable to be here today. My Lords, this amendment is straightforward. It seeks simply to insert a new subsection requiring that before the Secretary of State makes any directions under clause 4, three things must happen.

First, a consultation with persons and communities likely to be affected, an environmental impact assessment and a noise impact assessment. On these benches, we feel these additions is a basic requirement of legitimate decision making where the power may have serious local consequences. The clause 4 directions on airspace redesign is not merely just a technical tidying up exercise. It could be used to alter and can be used to alter flight concentrations, runway throughput and the intensity and timing of overflight experienced on the ground. A ministerial direction made under this clause is capable in substance of facilitating additional capacity without ever being labeled as such.

So, my Lords, as was said in second reading, the bill before us is a blueprint, it's not the final product. It provides a framework and leaves the substance to future regulation. In that sense, as we've described it, it's paving legislation. And the House is entitled to ask what safeguards are built into that paving before we're asked to drive on it. The Minister has given us reassurances that the bill will not be used as a vehicle for airport expansion and we note and we welcome those and we accept them in the good faith in which they've been given to us.

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