HC Deb 07 July 1980 vol 988 cc193-5
Mr. Tebbit

I beg to move amendment No. 41, in page 14, line 1, leave out from beginning to 'to' and insert 'It shall be the duty of the Civil Aviation Authority'.

Mr. Deputy Speaker

With this we may discuss the following amendments:

No. 42, in page 14, line 2, leave out 'from time to time' and insert 'on a regular basis.'.

Government amendments Nos. 43, 44, 64 and 47.

Mr. Tebbit

I think that I can deal with these matters fairly briefly. [HON. MEMBERS: "Hear, hear."] I am glad that the House agrees with me.

Amendment No. 41 removes the words The Civil Aviation Authority shall be under a duty", and substitutes It shall be the duty". That is merely designed to use the same form of words throughout the Bill. Amendment No. 42 requires the CAA to publish its licensing policy "on a regular basis" rather than "from time to time". That is an amendment favoured by my hon. Friend the Member for Brentwood and Ongar (Mr. McCrindle). I hope that he will not be too disappointed if I again tell him that I do not favour that amendment. I do not think that the CAA should be required to do this on a regular basis. The first occasion on which it will publish this policy will be six months after the coming into effect of the Bill in general terms, and we do not want it to be publishing policy thereafter every six months; we want it only as publication is needed, when there is a change.

Amendment No. 43 is consequential on No. 47, to which I shall refer in a moment. Amendment No. 44 is consequential upon the decision to amend clause 11, to bring it into force on a day appointed, which is to be after the publication of the CAA policy statement. Had we not made this further amendment we would have landed ourselves in considerable difficulties. That puts the whole thing right again.

Amendment No. 64 gives effect to the spirit of an amendment moved by my hon. Friend the Member for Brentwood and Ongar, so he has won something, at any rate, in this debate. That allows the Secretary of State to require the authority to publish statements of its policy on particular matters as he may think fit.

Amendment No. 47, to which I referred, requires the CAA to incorporate in its annual reports any policy statements that it makes during the year. That makes a convenient peg on which to hang, if necessary, a debate on those matters, since there could be a debate on the report of the CAA if the Opposition so wished.

I ask the House to agree to amendments Nos. 41, 43, 44, 64 and 47, and I hope that my hon. Friend will agree to ask leave to withdraw amendment No. 42.

Mr. McCrindle

I get the impression that the House will not be disappointed if I restrict my remarks to a few minutes. I should, perhaps, be forgiven if I say that consistently during the stages of the Bill I have tried to put pressure on my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary without, as the House will have noticed, a great deal of success so far.

Nevertheless, I do not wish to look a gift horse in the mouth. I think that my hon. Friend was saying that though he cannot quite accept amendment No. 42 he feels that the spirit behind it is implicit in his acceptance of one of the other amendments. On that basis, he will be happy to know that I shall not seek to press amendment No. 42.

Amendment agreed to.

Amendments made: No. 43, in page 14, line 2 leave out '(in such manner as it thinks fit)'.

No. 44, in page 14, line 7, leave out 'section 11 of this Act' and insert this section'.

No. 64, in page 14, line 7 at end insert— '(2A) If the Secretary of State considers it appropriate to do so, he may by notice in writing require the Authority to publish a statement of the policy it intends to adopt with respect to any particular matter in performing those functions (or any of them); and it shall be the duty of the Authority to publish any statement required by a notice under this subsection within six months of the date of the notice. (2B) The Secretary of State may require the Authority to publish a statement of the policy it intends to adopt in relation to any of its functions under section 23A of the Act of 1971 notwithstanding that section 11 of this Act is not yet in force.'.—[Mr. Tebbit.]

Clause 17