Civil Aviation Bill

: I shall make only a brief speech at the end of this interesting Third Reading debate. I support the Bill: it is generally good, but I am absolutely delighted with the provisions of clause 7. The members of the campaign group VARDA—the Victims of Air Related Deep Vein Thrombosis Association—share my gratitude to the Government for taking the courageous step of introducing this legislation. The hon. Member for Rutland and Melton (Mr. Duncan) clearly has not read the Bill, because clause 7 imposes for the first time ever, in any country, a statutory duty to safeguard the health of airline passengers. It creates the aviation health unit, which will be financed through a levy on the airlines and which will carry out research into aviation health concerns and publish advice to passengers. It also extends air navigation orders to include, for the first time, health matters relating to the aviation industry. In Committee, I tried to introduce a new clause that would have extended the Bill’s powers and amended the Carriage by Air Act 1961 to override article 17 of the 1929 Warsaw convention, which limits the liability on injury to airline passengers—