In my statement on 13
July this year, I said I would set out the next steps of
the draft Airports National
Policy Statement (NPS) process following the
summer recess.
The government consulted on a draft
Airports NPS between 2
February and 25 May this year.
We received over 70,000 responses, and work to analyse them is
ongoing. I would like to thank everyone who took the time to feed
in their views.
In the consultation document, my department was clear that
further work was underway to update the evidence base, including
revised aviation demand forecasts and the government’s final air
quality plan. It was intended these documents would be presented
for consideration during the initial consultation, but the timing
of the general election meant this was not possible.
I am therefore confirming that there is a need to conduct a short
period of further consultation to allow this updated evidence to
be taken into account. This further consultation will focus
mainly on the specific elements of the NPS affected, and is
expected to begin later this year.
I appointed the former Senior President of Tribunals, Sir Jeremy
Sullivan, to provide independent oversight of the consultation
process. I am very grateful to him for his hard work in helping
to ensure that the consultation was as open, fair and transparent
as possible. Today (7 September 2017) I am publishing
his report on the initial
consultation, and can announce that he has agreed to oversee
the period of further consultation.
In my statement in July I said that the timing of the election —
in particular the need to re-start the Select Committee
process — meant we now expect to lay any
final NPS in the first half of
2018 for a vote in the House of Commons. This government remains
committed to realising the benefits that airport expansion could
bring, and I can confirm that we do not expect this additional
period of consultation to impact on the timetable for
parliamentary scrutiny of the NPS.
