Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress has been made to ensure that no extra airport related road traffic will result from the increase in passenger capacity after the North West Runway is built; whether they intend to make this an legally binding requirement on Heathrow Airport Ltd; and if not, why not.

The Airports National Policy Statement was designated on 26 July 2018, paving the way for a development consent application from Heathrow.

Heathrow airport is already well connected by rail and tube and will benefit from transport improvements which are already in construction or planned, such as Crossrail, HS2 and the proposed Western Rail Link.

The Airports National Policy Statement sets out that Heathrow Airport should continue to strive to meet its public pledge to have landside airport-related traffic no greater than today.

As part of a Development Consent Application, Heathrow would need to undertake detailed assessments of the impacts of expansion. Only once the detailed assessments have been carried out, can these impacts can be fully assessed.

This pledge may become a legally binding requirement as part of the development consent process.