To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what consultations were held with the travel industry before the announcement of the recent increase in air passenger duty; (116911)

The Treasury routinely meets with stakeholder groups as part of the policy development process. However the Treasury also balances openness with the need to maintain the confidentiality of tax proposals under consideration for the Chancellor’s Budget and pre-Budget reports.

The decision to increase rates was taken after careful consideration of all environmental, social and economic factors, including the impact on the travel industry of an increase.

The Chancellor received a number of representations from the travel industry following his 6 December pre-Budget report announcement and Ministers and officials have met with industry representatives to discuss these.

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much revenue air passenger duty was raised in each of the last 10 years. (117127)

Information on revenue raised by air passenger duty can be found in Table 1 and Table 2 of the HM Revenue and Customs ‘Air Passenger Duty Bulletin’ on the HM Revenue and Customs website:

http://www.uktradeinfo.com/index.cfm?task=airpass