Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: HM Treasury

Oral Answers to Questions

Angus Brendan MacNeil Excerpts
Tuesday 5th November 2013

(10 years, 5 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Baroness Morgan of Cotes Portrait Nicky Morgan
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I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question. As I said, we will always look at any evidence that people want to send us. We want to encourage new links between the UK and China, and the Mayor of London made some interesting points. The point is that we have to change prices a lot in order to change passenger behaviour, and we would need to look at that further.

Angus Brendan MacNeil Portrait Mr Angus Brendan MacNeil (Na h-Eileanan an Iar) (SNP)
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Is the Minister aware of the success of Barcelona airport in gaining more than 20 international routes in the past year because of a 100% APD reduction? Does she think that such a reduction would help Scotland to regain the millions of passengers it has lost owing to this Government’s APD costs?

Baroness Morgan of Cotes Portrait Nicky Morgan
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The hon. Gentleman will be aware that there is no APD charge from airports in his constituency. As he knows from our recent debate, APD makes an important contribution to the deficit reduction plans; we will always keep it under review, but it is a very important part of this Government’s attempts to rebalance the economy.