Sophie Bold

Airports Policy Division

Zone 1/26

Great Minster House

76 Marsham Street

London SW1P 4DR

E-Mail: [email address]

Web Site: www.dft.gov.uk

16 October 2009

Dear Mr Kelly,

Case Reference Number: P0005812

Thank you for your email of 13 October to the FOI Advice Team at the Department for Transport (DfT), in which you request a figure for the total DfT has spent on the proposed third runway and sixth terminal at Heathrow Airport and then mention specifically some areas of expenditure you wish to see included.

I will be unable to proceed with your request without clarification of the information you wish to receive.

In order to proceed with your request, I would be grateful for some clarification on your reference to “costs associated with creating the original White Paper in 2003”. As you will appreciate, the White Paper was aimed at providing a strategic framework for the development of air travel across the whole of the UK, and included extensive preparatory work on existing airports and possible sites around the Regions as well as London and the South East. It is not possible to isolate the costs attributable to work solely on Heathrow. We can however seek to identify all subsequent costs relating to work on Heathrow, including legal fees on defending relevant challenges in 2004 to the White Paper and all work since then specifically on assessing and consulting on Heathrow options, up to the point of the decisions announced in January 2009.

In order to proceed with your request, I would therefore be grateful if you could confirm please whether your request relates to:

“ . . . public money that has been spent by the DfT on the subject of a proposed third runway and sixth terminal at Heathrow Airport following the publication of the White Paper in 2003”

Please note that if I do not receive appropriate clarification of your information requirements within three months from the date of this letter, then I will consider your request closed.

If you wish to discuss any of the above, please contact me. Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Sophie Bold

Alastair Kelly

Replied via:

[FOI #20697 email]