§ VISCOUNT SWINTONMy Lords, I beg to ask the noble Viscount the Leader of the House the following question, of which I have given private notice, namely, to ask His Majesty's Government if there is any intention to depart from the policy on private charter flying outlined in the White Paper on Civil Aviation, Command Paper 6712, paragraph 30.
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR DOMINION AFFAIRS (VISCOUNT ADDISON)My Lords, I am much obliged to the noble Viscount for this question. My attention has been drawn to a statement that I made in reply to an interjected question by the noble Viscount with regard to chartering, in the discussion on aviation policy in the House on Thursday last. My answer was in relation to what I was thinking about at the time, as my previous remarks showed, namely, the chartering which might involve a regular air bus service which, of course, would be the business of the State Corporations. I find, however, that I should have made it clear that this did not apply to charter living in the "taxi" sense, as is set out in paragraph 30 of the White Paper, which is as follows:
It is not proposed to reserve the charter field to the Corporations, and it will be open to private operators to engage in charter and taxi operations, but they will be required to satisfy the safety regulations and to maintain satisfactory conditions of employment.I should like, therefore, to take this opportunity of amplifying a statement in that respect which I made on the spur of the moment, and which may have given a wrong impression. I am grateful to the noble Viscount for enabling me to make this statement.