Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of noise from flights approaching Heathrow Airport on people living in Greenwich and Woolwich constituency.

As stated in the Government’s 2013 Aviation Policy Framework, the Government expects airports to help local communities understand the noise impacts they are affected by, through monitoring and provision of information. It is the responsibility of the airport to determine what monitoring is appropriate, and to carry out such monitoring. Heathrow publishes a range of noise information on its website.

The Government appreciates that noise issues are important to communities and is therefore currently reviewing several aspects of national airspace and noise policies, and will consult on these in due course. My ministerial colleague, Lord Ahmad, the Minister for Aviation and officials at the Department for Transport have been engaging with stakeholders, including representatives of communities around airports, to ensure that any changes to existing policies balance the interests of communities with those of passengers and the industry.