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houghts and not seek to get around a ›roblem ¿y pretending that it does not xist or by asking someone else to solve t. cause it will come back into their aps.
I ask Parliament to be aware of this device of handing over responsibility to another body. What will be the position of Members of Parliament who ask ques- tions about these matters? Will not the Secretary of State say, "I have no minis- terial responsibility for this matter; I have given it over, or it has been given over by Parliament, to the CAA and I do not propose to answer any of these ques- tions." ?
Of course appeals can be taken to the Secretary of State, but as he said, he does not see an extensive role for himself in
that capacity. He will of course be able to plead the sub judice rule when ques- tions are asked in that connection, until
1
the decision has been made.
--is-therefore wrong of the Govern- ment to run away from policy making in this way. If they disagree with, the pre- vious Government's policy, good and well-let them say what changes they propose, let-them put them into guidance for the CAA-with the benefit of hind- sight they can no doubt couch them in a way of which the Court of Appeal will approve put it to Parliament and let
us thrash it out so that there can be clear guidance from the Secretary of State and
to the Government that we will fight these proposals every inch of the way.
4.56 pm
Sir Paul Bryan (Howden): This is the first and probably the last speech that I shall ever make on civil aviation. I do not have the expert knowledge of this subject possessed by other hon. Members who will take part in this debate. I intervene briefly in my capacity as chair- man of the all-party Hong Kong group.
In my speech I shall try to show that section 3 of the Civil Aviation Act 1971 has treated Hong Kong unfairly and that this Bill does nothing to remedy that injustice. The Secretary of State will know that three airlines are currently applying to the Civil Aviation Authority for the issue of licences promoting the operation of scheduled services to Hong Kong. They are British Caledonian Air- ways, Laker, and Cathay Pacific Airways. As the applications are due to be heard shortly, the matter is sub judice and it would be improper for me to discuss their merits. However, I do not think that I will be deemed out of order if I point out the unfair circumstances under which those hearings seem likely to take place.
If Hong Hong were an independent country, it would naturally demand reci- procal rights on this route with Great
Britain. In return for a British airline being granted landing rights in Hong
from the House to the CAA on carrying Kong, a Hong Kong airline could count
out its functions.
The Government are making a serious mistake in thinking that merely to pro- duce a number of criteria is any that it substitute for the guidance
How- is their responsibility to give. ever, even on the limited criteria that exist, we believe that it would be fair to
include a fair wages criterion, so that licences are given only to airlines which only to airlines which behave properly in terms of wages and conditions.
We roundly condemn the Bill on its two principal planks-the selling of good profitable assets in our national airline at what we believe will be a heavy loss to the British taxpayer and the abdica-
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on corresponding rights at Gatwick or Heathrow. As a dependent territory, Hong Kong does not enjoy that automatic quid pro quo. In the contrary, its land- ing rights are forfeit, to become a con- siderable asset in the hands of Great Britain.
Hong Kong suffers a double injustice. In addition to its being denied the natural
privilege of bargaining its home landing rights with landing rights in the United Kingdom, section 3 of the Civil Aviation Act 1971, which requires the CAA to ensure that services are provided by
airline, defines British
a British airline as one whose principal place of business is in the United King- dom, the Channel Islands or the Isle of
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