A company which the Government hired to help make the case for the third Heathrow runway previously worked for airport owners BAA, the Evening Standard can reveal.

Environmental consultants AEA was commissioned by the Department for Transport to assess the implications of airport expansion on air quality.

Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon used the report it compiled to conclude the effect of a new runway on public health would be "marginal".

But the Evening Standard has learned that the company had previously worked extensively for BAA.

Today MPs raised questions over the study, saying residents' fears for their health had not been allayed.

An Evening Standard investigation has found a series of links between the AEA group, BAA and the Government.

These show that:

company AEA has carried out work for airport operator BAA for years including on routine air quality monitoring, emission inventory compilation and dispersion modelling.

• More than two thirds of AEA's business has come from central government in recent years.

• Documents released under freedom of information laws show AEA worked with the Government and BAA on plans for the expansion.

• The company "assisted" at 12 public exhibitions to present government findings on expanding Heathrow.

Ministers dismissed as "nonsense" any idea the work by AEA, which has an international reputation for its expertise, was done anything but correctly.

But Conservatives today called for a fresh assessment of the health risks from a third runway. In particular, they attacked ministers for relying on a company so heavily dependent on the Government for its revenue, and with such strong links to BAA, to assess warnings from the Environment Agency over the health dangers of airport expansion.

Tory shadow London minister Justine Greening, who has led the way in forcing the Government to release damaging documents on the third runway plans, said: "This raises serious questions over Geoff Hoon's judgment.

"The Government has ridden roughshod over the will of residents, MPs, environmentalists and many experts with its determination to see a third runway built.

"Ministers must now act to allay fears public health will suffer more than so far admitted."

Last month, Mr Hoon wrote to Ms Greening using one of AEA's reports to counter warnings of possible health risks from a larger airport.

He stressed that a report by AEA Energy & Environment, part of the AEA group which has worked with the Department for Environment on air quality, had shown "only marginal physical health impacts of an expanded airport in 2020".

This contrasted with Environment Agency chairman Lord Smith, a former Labour Cabinet minister, who warned: "All the studies we've done in the Environment Agency of the impact on air quality in west London are very detrimental.

"If the third runway goes ahead, if we get that extra air and ground traffic, then it is absolutely certain nitrogen dioxide levels will go way beyond what they ought to be for the sake of human health."

AEA's 2007/08 annual report shows that 68 per cent of its business came from central government.

Once orders from other public bodies are added, these figures have been as high as 78 per cent in recent years.

Lord moonie on the board

One of the Labour peers in the Lords-for-hire allegations sits on the board of AEA.

Lord Moonie, a non-executive director of AEA Technology, also worked as a junior defence minister for Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon when he was Defence Secretary.

The Department for Transport denied that it had had any discussions with Lord Moonie over Heathrow expansion.

Lord Moonie was one of four peers investigated by the Lords authorities over claims that they were willing to accept payments to facilitate getting legislation changed.

He has also faced controversy after his son Graham, 31, was given a parliamentary pass. Graham Moonie works for the public relations firm the Madano Partnership where he deals with the AEA account.

Madano said Graham Moonie gave back his pass in June last year as soon as the firm became aware of it. A spokesman added: "He certainly never used the pass in relation to any work carried out for Madano."

Lord Moonie declined to comment.

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