Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions his Department had with the Ministry of Defence on the decision to increase commercial flights to 12,000 a year at RAF Northolt; and what assessment his Department has made of the effect of such flights on local air quality.

RAF Northolt is an operational military base and is the policy responsibility of the Secretary of State for Defence. In 2011, the Ministry of Defence consulted the Department for Transport on a range of options for the future of the base, but the subsequent decision to increase commercial aviation operations at the base – and any assessment of the impacts of this – remained with the Secretary of State for Defence.