Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the effect of noise from military aircraft operations from RAF Benson on Abingdon residents; and if he will make a statement.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) recognises that while aircraft bases bring significant benefits to their local area, the noise produced by aircraft can have an impact on local communities. There are no uninhabited areas of the UK large enough to accommodate military aviation needs, which makes some disruption unavoidable.

As with all MOD bases, RAF Benson takes its responsibilities to the public very seriously and seeks to mitigate and minimise the impact of noise on local residents as far as possible. Measures include that aircrew must assess the noise they are causing and reduce it so far as safe operation will allow; training is planned to be spread geographically as widely as possible to reduce recurrent disturbance to specific communities; and the MOD seeks to conduct training over less densely-populated areas, balancing the requirement to minimise noise with safe aircraft operation and training requirements.