Sack BAA's tame DfT officials, say MPs

Former environment minister Michael Meacher claimed that a "line had been crossed" over the Department for Transport working with the airport operator on a consultation document over increasing the size of Heathrow.

Mr Meacher intervened in a Commons debate called by the Lib-Dems to demand an end to airport expansion in the South East.

He highlighted a recent newspaper report on a third runway at Heathrow which he said exposed "how deceptive and manipulative Government departments can be in pursuit of a pre-determined objective". He told MPs: "What these documents show is that BAA gave directions to DfT officials on how to strip out data in the consultative document that showed the expansion would cause unlawful levels of pollution and extra noise.

"They show BAA repeatedly selected alternative data for the consultation devised in order to get the result which showed an insignificant impact on noise and pollution.

"They show the DfT apparently gave unprecedented access to confidential papers and allowed the company actually to help to rewrite the final document.

Calling for individuals to be held to account if they were found to have played a role in fiddling figures, he said: "I assume no minister was directly involved in the massaging of this data.

"But I think that leading civil servants, including David Gray - who is mentioned in all of the documents - should be disciplined and if necessary removed."

However, Transport Minister Jim Fitzpatrick furiously denied the allegations.

He said: "We stand by the information, evidence, data we published in our consultat ion material."

He added: "Your suggestion that civil servants be disciplined is outrageous in my opinion - to suggest such on the basis of an article in a newspaper."

Liberal Democrat transport spokesman Norman Baker MP accused the Government of " holing below the waterline" its climate change strategy by supporting growth at Heathrow which could see the number of flights spiral from 480,000 a year to more than 700,000.

"The proposal makes no sense and must be firmly resisted, but sadly the Government gives every impression of being in the pocket of BAA and having already made up its mind," he said.

Justine Greening, Tory MP for Putney, whose Freedom of Information requests revealed BAA's involvement in the consultation document, said it was " fundamentally wrong" and gave the impression of "not a DfT-led review as to whether these environmental tests could be overcome, but a BAA-led review".