The full Commons statement by Alistair Darling on the judicial decision on airport consultations.

"With permission Mr Speaker I should like to make a short statement about the government's consultation on airports capacity.

As I set out in my statement to the House in July, the government intends to publish a white paper on air travel. As part of that we will set out our views on how much additional airport capacity is needed and where it should be sited.

And in advance of the white paper we published seven consultation papers seeking views on a wide number of options throughout the UK.

Part of that consultation included consideration of capacity in the south east of England. A number of options were canvassed. One of the key questions was the importance of an international hub airport in the south east and where it should be sited.

As I said in July, one option was to build at Heathrow; a second option was at Stansted and a third option was a completely new airport at Cliffe.

As well as the question of a hub airport, the south east consultation paper looked at other matters including where any new capacity should be located.

Mr Speaker, I told the House in July that I had decided to exclude further development at Gatwick because of a legal agreement ruling out the construction of a new runway before 2019.

That decision was challenged last month when Kent County Council and Medway Council applied for a judicial review of that decision.

On Tuesday the Court upheld that challenge.

It might be useful to remind the House why the government took the decision to exclude Gatwick. And I also want to set out how the government intends to proceed in the light of the court's ruling.

The facts in relation to the government's decision were set out in a witness statement put before the court. I have arranged to place a copy of that statement in the Library. I have also sent a copy of it to the principal opposition spokesmen along with this statement in the usual way.

Briefly the facts are these. The government, prior to publishing the consultation papers had to consider whether to include proposals in relation to Gatwick.

In particular it had to consider whether it should ask parliament to overturn an agreement made in 1979 between the then publicly owned British Airports Authority and West Sussex County Council.

The government decided it would be highly undesirable to do so as a matter of policy.

We considered it important that people should be able to continue to rely on such a legally binding agreement.

Accordingly the government reached the conclusion in respect of the 1979 agreement that whilst it could ask parliament to overturn it. It would only consider it appropriate to do so if there was demonstrably no alternative way forward. That was clearly not the case, having regard to the other options before it.

As the House knows, the Court took a different view. It held that people ought to have an opportunity to present their case on expansion at Gatwick.

As I made clear in my written statement yesterday, although the court granted leave for the government to appeal against this decision. I have decided not to do so.

Inevitably an appeal would be a lengthy and prolonged process. And would result in an extensive period of uncertainty for people up and down the country. That is in no one's interest

I have therefore decided that the consultation, due to end on 30 November, will be kept open until we have consulted on options in relation to Gatwick.

It is only two days since we received the judgement. And its implications need to be considered further. But I wanted to keep the House informed about how I intend to proceedI intend to publish a further paper following the decision to include Gatwick in the consultation

I will publish these further options in the new year. The consultation period will run four months from then.

It follows therefore that all representations received so far will be considered together with additional representations that follow from the decision to include Gatwick.

As I told the House on 19 November, this is an opportunity for anyone in the country to express their views on all the options in the consultation as well as to put forward reasonable alternatives

Inevitably the white paper which I had hoped to publish in the first part of next year will be delayed, at least until the autumn of next year

Mr Speaker the government took the decision to exclude Gatwick because it wanted to honour an agreement. The court has taken a different view. Rather than contest that judgement I have decided the right thing to do is to accept that it and consult. But inevitably and regrettably it means an extended period of uncertainty for everyone

The important thing now is now to get on. And reach a conclusion on what is a critical matter for the future of this country."