Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the different requirements in the guidance for social distancing for (1) airlines, and (2) bus operators; whether that assessment demonstrated that the guidance for one is more prescriptive than the other; and if so, why.

Our safer transport guidance and safer aviation guidance provide advice to help transport organisations and the aviation industry manage the risks of coronavirus. This includes suggested measures for how they can provide safer workplaces and services for workers and passengers, including mitigations where social distancing is not possible or more difficult to manage. The measures suggested are intended as a guide, not as a prescriptive set of requirements. Transport organisations and the aviation industry will need to carry out their own risk assessments.

Both sets of guidance have been developed in collaboration with industry, Public Health England, and relevant health and safety regulators. The risk control measures suggested in both reflect the nature of the settings for which they are intended. Aviation settings differ in several key ways from buses and other modes of public transport, particularly the higher level of control inherent in aviation settings. In comparison, bus and other land transport services operate in less controlled environments with a greater degree of passenger autonomy.