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65
Civil Aviation Bil
Man. Cathay Pacific is an airline based in Hong Kong and will therefore be at a clear disadvantage at the CAA hearing.
19 NOVEMBER 1979 Civil Aviation Bill
tional and parliamentary implication the Bill-implications that the Secre of State and the Government are far f having grasped, let alone dealt with.
This was brought to the attention of the Hong Kong Government and I under- stand that representations were made at governmental level, seeking action to re- move the legislative bias against CPA before the hearing.
However, the Bill contains no provi-
sion to amend section 3 of the 1971 Act. I suppose that, when the Act was drafted, it was assumed that no dependent terri- tory was likely to have an airline suffi- ciently substantial to take on the respon- sibility of a major inter-continental route.
Cathay Pacific, with its assets of £120 million and extensive routes, already car- ries that scale of responsibility. What is more, by the end of 1982 it will be the only international airline in the world to have, an all Rolls-Royce powered fleet. It is very British indeed.
I am not in a position to say, and it would not be proper for me to do so, that these are conclusive reasons why the Hong Kong route should be given to a Hong Kong company, but they are suffi- cient grounds to justify a Hong Kong company competing on equal terms with the other applicants, both of them famous companies with fine, adventurous records.
All that seems necessary is an amend- ment in Committee to say that an airline that has its principal place of business in a dependent territory is to be regarded as a British airline when making an appli- cation for a route between that territory and the United Kingdom. I shall be glad to hear the attitude of my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary towards such an amend- meat when he winds up the debate.
ote meita ༥
5.2 pm
Mr. J. Enoch Powell (Down, South): It would be impossible for an hon. Mem- bar representing the part of the United Kingdom that is far more vitally depen dent on air transport than any other not to take the opportunity afforded by the Second Reading of the Bill to refer to
souse of the major anxieties of his con-
When the House passed a series nationalisation statutes 30 years ago. what was called the Morrison mode initiated a constitutional innovation wi took some decades to digest. Eventu though imperfectly, the House has c to grips with the problem of exer proper control over the old-s nationalised industry, both on cal account and in its operations, with destroying the notion of semi-commer operation which was embedded in statutes that set up such industries.
Here we are embarking upon entirely new model and the constitutio questions raised by the Bill are ser and immediate. Before coming to heart of the matter, I want to get of the way a question of presentat which was referred to by the right i Member for Lanarkshire, North ( Smith). In the course of lengthy exchan following the Secretary of State's in announcement, the right hon. Grutler
said:
TO
"If the share issue goes through successf about £1,000 million of what is classifie public expenditure will come out of Gu ment accounts. I want that sum to be ou the balance sheet of the Government, bec I see no reason for its being there' There is a puzzle here. May I say the puzzle is, and then invite a soluti If by
the share issue going throu the right hon. Gentleman means the of a substantial minority of the sh in the successor company, the cash of that sale must be brought into Gov ment account. No doubt it would a in meeting the public sector borrow requirement of that financial year; that cannot really be described as £1 million of public expenditure out" of Government accounts.
CON
So I take it that the Secretary of S must mean, not the initial share issue the sale of a minority of the shares itially created by the Bill, but the
of what he called in his specia