A spokesman said the Chancellor had not been personally called before the MPs but that Mr Smith had received the summons “It is not a Treasury matter. It would be pretty ridiculous for a Treasury minister to go along to a select committee to comment on another minister’s work,” a Treasury spokesman said.The Treasury has in the past let ministers give evidence to select committees on Northern Ireland and Scottish affairs.The Government has had a stormy relationship with Ms Dunwoody. An attempt to sack her after the election failed when MPs refused to back the Labour whips’ move.Her committee’s inquiry into Railtrack has already proved embarrassing for the Government. Tom Winsor, the Railtrack regulator, contradicted Mr Byers’ statement that he had made “no threat” to take away his independence.Mr Smith has written to the select committee to explain why the Treasury will not appear at the question-and-answer session.. The Treasury is ready to rescue Britain’s air traffic control network from a financial crisis partly caused by the 11 September terrorist attacks. It has been forced to revise its business plan and will hold a board meeting on Monday. Among the options it is considering are to request more public money, to seek extra help from its bankers or to increase charges to airlines entering British airspace.The Independent has learnt that ministers will look “sympathetically” at a plea for a state handout to see Nats through the crisis.

The move would be embarrassing for the Government, which repeatedly insisted that its plans would deliver much-needed investment for the air-traffic control system.Ministers accept that the present crisis is so severe that emergency steps will have to be taken. One said that taxpayers would have had to absorb the cost of the post-11 September crisis if Nats was still in state hands.A Nats source confirmed that it had made initial contacts with ministers over special help for the network. “The Government is sympathetic and they want to sort it out,” he said.Labour received £750m earlier this year after it sold a 51 per cent stake in the network, with a consortium of airlines, including British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, taking 46 per cent and staff receiving a 5 per cent share.Nats agreed a 17.5 per cent cut over five years in the fees airlines paid to enter British airspace in return for improved cost-effectiveness. But because of the slump in passenger numbers – particularly on transatlantic flights – Nats has warned the Government its financial targets are proving impossible to meet. The network is understood to be about to approach the Civil Aviation Authority to request a renegotiation of the planned cuts in air fees. Last year it received some £600m from the fees, but the income this year is certain to fall sharply.Meanwhile, Tony Blair ruled out large-scale subsidy of Britain’s struggling airlines to help them through the crisis. He told the Commons yesterday: “Our airline and aviation industry .. have obviously experienced very difficult times.

We believe, however, the European Commission has been right to say there should be no general bail-out of companies.”Mr Blair said the Government was looking at other ways of compensating carriers for revenue lost in the immediate aftermath of 11 September.. The killer of Sarah Payne could have dug the schoolgirl’s shallow grave in a darkened field and buried her body within six minutes, a jury was told on Wednesday. Ms Bray contacted police when she learnt about the discovery of eight-year-old Sarah two miles away on 17 July.Ms Bray told the court that the police asked her to try to get the shoe, which she found underneath a hedge by the side of the road. “I wasn’t really expecting it to be there,” she said.The jury of nine men and three women has heard that fibres discovered on the shoe’s velcro strap were linked to items found in Mr Whiting’s van. Mr Whiting, of Littlehampton, West Sussex, allegedly had a detailed knowledge of the area where Sarah was found.