§ Mr. Colvinasked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will publish in the Official Report a table showing, in simplified form, the scale of charges from the Meteorological Office for aviation services.
§ Mr. Archie HamiltonThe CAA determines what services the Meteorological Office should provide to civil aviation, in fulfilment of international and domestic agreements. The charges for these services are made to the CAA at full cost, that is they include both the direct cost and a share of the core overhead cost.
Air operators and others in civil aviation who require meteorological information over and above that supplied by agreement with the CAA are charged on a repayment basis that is similar to that applying for other commercial users of the services of the Office.
§ Mr. Colvinasked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will publish in the Official Report a table showing, in simplified form, the scale of charges from the Meteorological Office for marine services.
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§ Mr. Archie HamiltonThere is no scale of Meteorological Office charges for marine services.
In fulfilment of the United Kingdom's obligations as a signatory of the safety of life at sea agreement under the auspices of the International Maritime Organisation, no charge is made for the weather bulletins for shipping or for the sea area gale warnings as broadcast by the BBC and by coastal radio stations.
Other marine services, including for example those for the routeing of individual ships, for towing, for transfer of cargo at sea and for offshore oil and gas drilling rigs and production platforms, are provided on repayment. The charges are assessed on a case-by-case basis to cover direct costs plus a share of the costs of the core overheads.
The Meteorological Office has very recently arranged to provide a premium rated telephone forecast service for inshore mariners, including yachtsmen. This is known as Marinecall.