Aircraft Noise (Hansard, 12 December 2001)

§ Mr. Jamieson

The Department of Transport in 1992 published the "Report of a Field Study of Aircraft Noise and Sleep Disturbance". This was and remains the largest UK study of the relationship between aircraft noise and physical sleep disturbance.

More recently the following reports, commissioned by the DETR, have been published:

"Night Noise Contours: A Feasibility Study" (Porter et al, National Physical Laboratory, 1997)
"Adverse effects of night-time aircraft noise" (Porter et al., NATS/DORA R&D Report 9964, March 2000)
"Aircraft Noise and Sleep—1999 UK Trial Methodology Study" (Flindell et al., ISVR, Southampton University, November 2000)
"Perceptions of Aircraft Noise, Sleep and Health" (Diamond et al., DSS, Southampton University, December 2000).

Copies of these reports are available in the House Library and a fuller explanation of Government-supported research on aircraft noise and sleep disturbance is available on the Department's website at http://www.aviation.dtlr.gov.uk/ sleepdisturbance/index.htm.

The then Under-Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, my hon. Friend the Member for Coventry, North-East (Mr. Ainsworth), announced in May 2001 that as a new full-scale objective study into sleep disturbance would be unlikely to add significantly to our understanding, the Government would concentrate instead on further research into subjective responses to annoyance by night and by day. Since that announcement a contract for the project has been awarded and a steering group representing aviation and environmental interests has been formed to oversee the work, and has met once. We are also setting up a peer review group representing both national and international experts. As well as re-assessing the association between the Leq index and reported annoyance the study will attempt to examine subjective valuation of the nuisance from aircraft noise.