§ Mr. Simon ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions when he intends to commission a strategic study on the environmental impacts of aviation in the UK to match the strategic study of the economic impacts of aviation included in the Developing Aviation White Paper process. [1587]
§ Mr. JamiesonIn December last year we published a consultation document, "The Future of Aviation". This examined the main issues underpinning air transport policy, including the need to tackle the environmental effects of aviation. We are giving careful consideration to the responses to the consultation document and propose to publish a summary of them later this summer. Alongside the consultation document, we published a paper, "Valuing the External Costs of Aviation", which reviews some of the literature about the valuation of noise, air quality and climate change impacts and considers the implications of aviation meeting its estimated external costs.
The study of regional airports and regional air services announced in the 1998 Transport White Paper, covering the north of England, the midlands, the south-west of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland was completed last year. The findings are currently being reviewed as part of a UK-wide Regional Co-ordination 19W study. A key component of this process has been the commissioning of studies on the impact of air transport (including associated surface transport) on local air qualify and noise at 23 regional airports. This work will provide an important input to a comprehensive appraisal of options for development of capacity at regional airports under a range of potential national policy scenarios.
We are also studying issues in the south-east and east of England. The South East and East of England Regional Air Service Study (SERAS) is examining all options for future development of airports in the south-east and east of England. The appraisal process includes an examination of environmental impacts, including noise and local air quality, climate change, urbanisation, land-take, biodiversity, landscape, heritage and designated areas. We propose to issue individual regional consultation documents for all these regions around the turn of the year.
All of these strands of work will feed into the new air transport White Paper, which we hope to publish next year.