§ Mr. ColmanTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport what breaches of night flight noise limits under the quota count system there have been on the Heathrow flight paths since the current night flights restrictions began. [123030]
§ Mr. McNultyNone. I wrote to my hon. Friend about this on 20 June 2003 and I have now placed a copy of that letter in the Libraries of the House.
§ Mr. ColmanTo ask the Secretary of Stale for Transport what discussions his Department has had with international experts on International Civil Aviation Organisation noise certification; and what reasons these experts have given for the difference between locally monitored night flight noise levels and certificated noise levels in the Heathrow area. [123031]
§ Mr. McNultyCertification testing is carried out under strictly controlled meteorological and acoustical conditions and using defined flight path procedures. It follows that when local conditions differ so too will the noise. The extent to which currently certificated noise levels correlate with operational noise levels is one of the items being examined by a Working Group of the Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP) of the International Civil Aviation Organisation. The Working Group will take account of data for a large range of aircraft types that operate at night at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted (recently published in "Quota Count Validation Study: Noise Measurements and Analysis", ERCD Report 0205), as well as data from some airports in the USA and France. The UK is represented on the CAEP Steering Group and the relevant Working Group by officials from the Department for Transport and the Civil Aviation Authority respectively.