LOST PROPERTY AT AERODROMES (Hansard, 7 July 1980)

§ The Under-Secretary of State for Trade (Mr. Norman Tebbit)
I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time.

§ Mr. Deputy Speaker
With this it will be convenient to take new clause 18—Custody and disposal of lost property at aerodromes.

§ Mr. Tebbit
I do not think that I need detain the House for long over the clause, which the Government have tabled to take the place of the new clause tabled by the hon. Member for Batley and Morley (Mr. Woolmer). It confers on aerodrome owners a power to make byelaws covering the safe custody and redelivery 112 of lost property at aerodromes. It will allow charges to be made for redelivery to the owner, and allow disposal where the property has not been reclaimed within a reasonable period. The byelaws would require confirmation by the Secretary of State.
We received representations from the joint aerodromes committee of local authorities and the Aerodrome Owners Association to the effect that the absence of such powers is causing difficulties for some of their members. Substantial amounts of unclaimed property accumulate during the holiday season at a few aerodromes, and the legal position regarding the right to dispose of it is in doubt. The British Airports Authority has regulations, made by statutory instrument, which govern these matters at its airports. The intention is that the Secretary of State will seek to encourage aerodrome authorities to model any byelaws they may make under the new clause on the BAA regulations. Where property may have been lost at either end of an air journey within the United Kingdom, it is clearly desirable that each should be treated uniformly as far as possible.
Consideration was given to whether the objective could be achieved by making regulations which would apply at selected aerodromes, as the hon. Member's clause would have done. However, this would have created a difficulty of repealing overlapping provisions in local Acts and dealing with the circumstances of the CAA aerodromes in Scotland. The byelaw method carries the advantage that where a strong case for local variations in practice can be made, it will be simpler to introduce them.
It will, for instance, be necessary to accommodate any byelaws made at Scottish aerodromes to the law of Scotland, and that law is at present under review following a report on lost and abandoned property by the Scottish Law Commission. That is a further reason for making use of the flexibility that the byelaw method offers us. It is a modest but useful provision which some aerodrome authorities have long sought, and I commend it to the House.
I thank the hon. Member for Batley and Morley for raising the issue by tabling his new clause. I hope that he will be willing not to press it, in favour 113 of the version that I have tabled. If the hon. Gentleman had not tabled his clause, this opportunity to set the position right, or at least to make things easier for aerodrome operators and those who lose their property at aerodromes, might easily have been lost.

Mr. K. J. Woohner (Batley and Morley)
I am happy to accept the Minister's assurance.
This is a matter that has concerned the members of the joint aerodromes committee of local authorities, of which there are 22 members. As the Minister said, a difficult situation arises when lost and mislaid property accumulates, often for many years. The local authority airports have not known with any certainty how they can properly dispose of their legal obligations.
Although I am happy, as I have said, to accept the Minister's assurances, I think that he will not be surprised if I remind him that perhaps on occasions ministerial assurances on certain matters are given somewhat greater flexibility than is expected, just as the motions of Opposition Back Benchers sometimes turn out to be different from what has been expected.
If, in due course, the powers in the Government's new clause prove to be less than satisfactory, I hope that the Minister will be open to further discussions. He will appreciate that I have not had time to have proper consultation with the airport authority concerned.
I thank the Minister for his courtesy in accepting the spirit of my new clause and for acting so promptly in bringing forward what we are assured will be a more fruitful clause than mine.

	' (5) The following section shall be inserted after section 23 of the Act of 1971— 23A.—(1) It shall be the duty of the Authority to perform its air transport licensing functions in the manner which it considers is best calculated to ensure that British airlines compete as effectively as possible with other airlines in providing air transport services on international routes; and in performing those functions the Authority shall also have regard—
10	(a) to any advice received from the Secretary of State with respect to the likely outcome of negotiations with the government of any other country or territory for the purpose of securing any right required for the operation by a British airline of any air transport services outside the United Kingdom; and
(b) to the need to secure the most effective use of airports within the United Kingdom.
15	(2) In considering whether to grant any air transport licence it shall be the duty of the Authority to have regard to the effect on existing air transport services provided by British airlines of authorising any new services the applicant proposes to