Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of whether it is possible to undertake proper consultation on a national policy statement on Heathrow Airport and on airspace policy as separate matters.

The consultations on the draft airports National Policy Statement on Heathrow Airport and on airspace policy are both matters of national importance in their own right, but are clearly related. The Government intends to bring forward the two consultations at the same time to enable the public and the aviation industry to consider all proposals together. Consulting in parallel can also enable the policy proposals set out in the airspace consultation which are adopted to be in place to influence decisions taken later on in the planning process for a proposed Northwest Runway at Heathrow. Equally, airspace is an important issue and the policy proposals cover the whole country, so it is right that we progress with policy proposals to bring improvements to the way it is handled nationwide.