§ Mr. JenkinTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, pursuant to his answer of 23 January 2001,Official Report, columns 529–30W, how much the X factor will be tightened to reflect the proposed delay term; who will be responsible for its enforcement; if there will be discretion in the application of such tightening; and what risk assessment of the proposal has been made. [147770]
Mr. Robert AinsworthThe formula by which the delay factor will be incorporated in the charge cap for National Air Traffic Services (NATS) will be set out in the licence for en route services which will be issued to NATS when the public/private partnership is established. A draft of that licence is in the Library of the House.
The delay term will reduce the maximum charges which NATS can derive from its UK en route business where the delays attributable to NATS in a preceding period exceed a defined standard. This standard will be based initially on the level of delays in 1999 and be specified to improve by 1 per cent. per annum thereafter. The detailed figures to be inserted in the formula will be calculated in such a way as to limit the penalty for delays to £2.0 million a year in respect of delays arising in 2001 21W and 2002 and to £5.7 million a year in respect of delays arising in the remainder of the first five-year regulatory period.
The delay term will be enforced by the Civil Aviation Authority as the economic regulator of NATS. Its enforcement will not be discretionary. The term has been set at a level designed to give NATS an incentive to reduce delays without in any way undermining the primacy of safety as a factor in NATS' operations.