Chris Challenges Minister on National Security Impact of Air Traffic Control Issues
Christopher Chope Conservative, Christchurch
Does the Minister agree that this incident, and the other ones that preceded it, are a threat to national security? As my hon. Friend Paul Holmes said, more than 100 RAF personnel are stationed at Swanwick, and are involved in protecting our national interest and our defence. The Minister has not yet addressed the security threat to our country posed by this incompetence.
Keir Mather Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Allow me to reassure the hon. Member that the civil aviation air traffic control systems and those used by the military and the Ministry of Defence are separate. However, it is right to say that our air traffic control for civil aviation is a foundation of the resilience of our aviation sector, and an enormous amount of economic growth is dependent on that sector functioning effectively, whether that be through air freight, the movement of business travellers to where they need to go, or facilitating the UK tourism industry. That is why it is so important that lessons are learned from this incident, and that we identify how we can minimise impacts on our national resilience in future.
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