Air Traffic Control, Prestwick (Hansard, 9 November 1998)

§ Mr. Brake
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if the contract for the development of the new air traffic control system at Prestwick will be signed before all major software flaws are rectified in the Swanwick system. [58216]

§ Dr. Reid
[holding answer 3 November 1998]NATS have assured the Environment, Transport and Regional Affairs Committee that no binding agreement with Sky Solutions would be signed until it was sure that the software at NERC could be made to work. Since then, the system has passed its acceptance tests, and preliminary findings by the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) have concluded that there is no substantive reason to doubt that it will work.

§ Mr. Brake
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will list the contractual dependencies between the contracts for the Swanwick and Prestwick developments. [58218]

§ Dr. Reid
[holding answer 3 November 1998]: There are no contractual dependencies between the Swanwick and Prestwick contracts.

§ Mr. Brake
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions when the contract with Lockheed-Martin for the development of the new air traffic control system at Prestwick will be signed. [58215]

§ Dr. Reid
[holding answer 3 November 1998]: Negotiations between National Air Traffic Services Ltd. (NATS) and Sky Solutions, the preferred bidder for the New Scottish air traffic control centre (NSC) at Prestwick, are nearing completion. NATS will then approach the Government for approval of the contract before it can be signed.

§ Mr. Brake
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if there is a deadline by which the contract for the development of the new air traffic control system at Prestwick has to have been signed. [58217]

§ Dr. Reid
[holding answer 3 November 1998]: No deadline has been set, but the Government are keen to see the development of the NSC in good time to avoid significant delays to air traffic over Scotland and Northern Ireland.