§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Secretary of State for Defence what arrangements the meteorological services have with the East German meteorological services for exchanging information regarding weather conditions at Schonefeld Airport and London Airport.
§ Mr. Merlyn ReesThe Meteorological Office has no bi-lateral arrangements with356W the East German meteorological service for exchanging weather information.
However, under international arrangements made by the World Meteorological Organisation, which supplies information to and seeks co-operation from non-members such as East Germany, synoptic weather reports are passed from the meteorological office at Schonefeld Airport to a collecting centre at Prague, from where they are passed with other meteorological reports to another collection centre at Paris, from where they are transmitted to Bracknell for onward transmission to the London Airports. Synoptic weather reports for the London Airports also reach Schonefeld Airport by the reverse process.
Under similar arrangements made by the International Civil Aviation Organisation, of which again East Germany is not a member, operational weather information for Schonefeld Airport is also passed to a collecting centre at Prague, from where it is transmitted to another collecting centre at Offenbach and then passed to the London Airports via a further collecting centre at Gatwick. Once again the reverse process also exists.