Source: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2012/19/notes/data.xht?view=snippet&wrap=true
Timestamp: 2018-02-22 20:12:40
Document Index: 723867510

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 1', 'art 5', 'art 4', 'art 1', 'art 2', 'art 1', 'art 1', 'art 4', 'art 4', 'art 1', 'art 1', 'art 2', 'art 5', 'art 4', 'art 5', 'art 3']

3.This Act contains measures which modernise the regulatory framework for civil aviation in the United Kingdom through reforms to the legislative framework for the economic regulation of airports and the legislative framework of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), and by conferring certain aviation security functions on the CAA. It also contains measures to reform the Secretary of State's powers to regulate the provision of flight accommodation.
18.The House of Commons Transport Committee report The Work of the Civil Aviation Authority also recommended that the DfT should carry out a fundamental review of the CAA itself. In 2007 the Government commissioned Sir Joseph Pilling to conduct an independent strategic review. The report was published in June 2008(6). His recommendations have informed some of the CAA reform measures contained in the Act. Some of his governance recommendations have been implemented without the need for legislation, for example the creation of a separate Chair and Chief Executive for the CAA. Others required legislation and the Act makes a number of changes to the CAA’s legislative framework as follows:
19.Previously, the Secretary of State appointed all the members of the CAA’s board and, with Treasury consent, determined their remuneration. Sir Joseph Pilling, in his 2008 Report recommended that modernising the CAA’s governance structure would help the CAA to maintain its general standing and record of success. Another recommendation was that the CAA board should be allowed to appoint its own executive directors and determine their remuneration packages. The Act contains provisions that make this change.
20.The Act enables the CAA to make use of alternative civil sanctions alongside existing criminal penalties.
21.The CAA’s charging schemes are the mechanism by which it recovers its regulatory costs from industry. These normally come into force on 1 April each year following consultation with the Secretary of State. Under the Civil Aviation Act 1982, (the “CAA 1982”) the CAA is required to allow a minimum of 60 days between publication of its proposed charges and those charges coming into force. The Act introduces a statutory obligation on the CAA to consult charge-payers and reduces the 60-day notice period to 14 days.
22.The CAA previously investigated and prosecuted aviation-related offences on behalf of the Crown, pursuant to arrangements to provide assistance to the Secretary of State under section 16 of the CAA 1982. The Act makes express provision for the CAA to institute criminal proceedings as part of its enforcement function under section 20 of the CAA 1982 to ensure that costs associated with carrying out enforcement work, including prosecutions, will be recoverable from the industry under the new charging scheme arrangements rather than from the taxpayer, as was the case under previous arrangements.
23.The Act contains provision creating a new duty for the CAA to publish or arrange for the aviation sector to publish such information and advice as the CAA considers appropriate: (i) to assist users (passengers or owners of cargo), including potential users of air transport services, to compare services and make more informed choices; and (ii) to inform the public about the environmental effects (including emissions and noise) of civil aviation in the UK and measures taken to limit the adverse environmental effects. The CAA may also publish best practice guidance and advice for the aviation sector aimed at either improving service standards for users or limiting the adverse environmental effects of civil aviation in the UK. The CAA must consult on its policy for carrying out these new functions and have regard to the principle that the benefits of carrying out the functions should outweigh any adverse effects.
24.The CAA receives medical information relating to flight crew and air traffic controllers in the course of licensing those persons to perform their air navigation roles. It is currently prohibited from disclosing that information unless at least one of a number of conditions is met, for example the consent of the person to whom the information relates has been obtained. Following a recommendation of the House of Lords Committee on Science and Technology in 2007 (H L Paper 7, December 20077) and Government response (H L Paper 105, May 20088), the Act will permit the CAA to disclose medical information, in anonymised form, for medical research purposes.
25.The Act amends the Secretary of State’s existing powers to regulate the provision of flight accommodation, which is the basis of the Air Travel Organiser’ Licensing (ATOL) scheme run by the CAA. The scheme protects passengers purchasing seats on flights, mainly where these form part of a package holiday or a ‘Flight-Plus’ holiday, in the event of the insolvency of a package tour operator or travel agent. The DfT consulted on the proposals to reform the ATOL scheme in summer 2011(9), including broadening the scope of the Secretary of State’s regulation-making powers to allow the scheme to better reflect the way in which holidays including a flight are now sold and arranged. Following from this, section 71 of the CAA 1982, as amended by section 94 of the Act, allows the Secretary of State to make regulations to require ATOL licences to be held by (i) airlines for the sale of holidays including a flight (ii) businesses procuring holidays including a flight on an “agent for the consumer” basis and (iii) businesses that facilitate making available flight accommodation. It also provides the Secretary of State with powers to make regulations imposing obligations on ATOL licence holders and giving consumers a right of action in the courts in relation to contraventions of those obligations.
26.The Act is divided into three Parts. It has 113 sections and 14 Schedules.
27.The Act makes changes to a number of existing Acts, most notably the ASA 1982, the CAA 1982, the AA 1986, the Transport Act 2000 (the “TA 2000”) and the Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Act 2008 (the “RESA 2008”). The arrangement of the Act is as follows:
Sections 1-2: General duties
Sections 3-4: Prohibition
Sections 5-13: Dominant airports
Sections 14-17: Licences
Sections 18-21: Licence conditions
Sections 22-23: Modifying licences
Sections 24-30: Appeals against licence conditions etc
Sections 31-47: Enforcement of licence conditions
Sections 48-49: Revocation of licence
Sections 50-55: Obtaining information
Sections 56-58: Penalties
Section 59: Disclosing information
Sections 60-65: Competition
Sections 66-72: Interpretation
Sections 73-77: Other general provision
Sections 78-82: Aviation security
Sections 83-93: Provision of information about aviation
Sections 95-99: CAA membership
Sections 100-105: Further provision about CAA
Sections 106-107: Miscellaneous
Sections 108-113: Final provisions
28.Section 111 sets out the territorial extent of the Act.
29.The Act extends to the whole of the United Kingdom.
30.Most, but not all, of the Act’s provisions apply to every part of the United Kingdom. For example, the amendments made by section 101 to section 20 of the CAA 1982 do not apply in relation to Scotland.
31.The amendments, repeals and revocations made by section 76 and Schedules 8 and 9 have the same extent as the provisions amended, repealed or revoked.
212.Part 1 of Schedule 8 amends Part 5 of the AA 1986 and Article 2 of the Airports (Northern Ireland) Order 1994 (the “1994 Order”) to make provision for conferring the status of statutory undertaker on certain airport operators.
213.Under the AA 1986 an airport operator has statutory undertaker status if a permission to levy charges under Part 4 of the AA 1986 has been granted in respect of the airport, or there is a subsisting pending application and it is not for these purposes an excluded airport under section 57(2) of that Act. Under section 37(2) of the AA 1986 permission to levy charges is necessary where the annual turnover of the airport operator exceeds £1million per financial year in at least two of the last three financial years.
214.Part 1 of the Act will repeal section 37 of the AA 1986 and this financial threshold will no longer be the determining factor as to whether an airport is regulated. Therefore consequential amendments are needed to the AA 1986 to enable the status of statutory undertaker to be conferred upon airport operators and preserve the position in respect of existing airport operators which have had such status conferred upon them.
215.Section 57 of the AA 1986 is substituted with section 57A, which provides that a relevant airport operator will have the status of a statutory undertaker where a certificate has been granted in respect of the airport of which it is the operator. The CAA will grant such a certificate if the airport operator has applied for the certificate, has paid the relevant charge, and is eligible. An airport will continue to be eligible where the annual turnover of the business carried on by the operator at the airport exceeds £1 million in at least two of the last three financial years.
216.Airports owned solely or jointly by a principal council, an Integrated Transport Authority (as defined by the Local Transport Act 2008) in England or a metropolitan county passenger transport authority in Scotland are excluded from being an eligible airport.
217.A certificate may be withdrawn by the Secretary of State (in relation to an airport in England and Wales) or the Scottish Ministers (in relation to an airport in Scotland) if the airport no longer meets the eligible annual turnover in the relevant financial years. Before withdrawing a certificate the Secretary of State or the Scottish Ministers (as appropriate) must consult the CAA and the airport operator. The withdrawal of a certificate does not affect rights or liabilities accrued during the period when a certificate had been granted.
218.The Secretary of State may make regulations about the operation of new section 57A of the AA 1986 in cases in which there is more than one operator at an airport (see paragraph 5 of Schedule 8).
219.The Secretary of State may make an order substituting a greater sum than £1 million.
220.Separate arrangements exist in Northern Ireland for the conferral of statutory undertaker status on airport operators. Part 2 of Schedule 8 makes amendments to the 1994 Order for airports in Northern Ireland to achieve a similar effect to the Great Britain arrangements.
221.Part 1 of Schedule 10 to the Act contains the key elements for the transition to Part 1 of the Act from the existing regulatory regime set out in Part 4 of the AA 1986 and Part 4 of the 1994 Order. Further transitional provision will be made in secondary legislation.
222.Paragraph 1 of Schedule 10 defines for the purpose of this Schedule an interim period, which will run from the date of commencement of section 3 (“the commencement day”) until 31 March 2014. The remainder of the Schedule makes provision about the operation of the AA 1986, the 1994 Order and the Act during that period.
223.Paragraphs 2 and 3 apply where an airport is designated under the AA 1986 or the 1994 Order at the beginning of the interim period. There are currently three designated airports - Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted – which are subject to price controls that expire on 31 March 2014. The Government has made a commitment not to disturb the current price control settlements for those airports.
224.Paragraph 2(2) and (3) provide that, on the commencement day”, a designated airport under the AA 1986 will be treated as having met the market power test under section 6 and as if the CAA had published a notice of that determination under section 8.
225.Paragraph 2(4) has the effect that the CAA may not treat this determination as having been previously made for the purposes of section 7(5). Therefore the CAA could not refuse a request from the operator of the airport area and/or other persons whose interests are likely to be materially affected by the determination on the basis that there has been no material change of circumstances since section 3 came into force.
226.Paragraph 2(6) disapplies the right of appeal in relation to the market power determination which is treated as made under paragraph 2(3). But it does not remove the right of appeal under section 13 and Schedule 1 where a market power determination is made in response to a request made after the commencement day”. The CAA is obliged to respond to a request made by the operator of the airport area in question or a person whose interests are likely to be materially affected by the determination (see section 7).
227.Paragraph 3(2) provides an exemption during the interim period from the prohibition under section 3. In brief, section 3 prevents specified persons from requiring others to pay relevant charges for airport operation services provided in an airport area if the operator of the area does not have a licence. The exemption under paragraph 3(2) applies to any person at an airport which is a designated airport on the commencement day”.
228.Paragraph 4(1) provides that if a decision was made to designate an airport, or to confirm or revoke a designation, on or after 10 November 2011, the CAA can refuse to make a market power determination (if it is requested to do so) if it considers that there has not been a material change of circumstances since the previous decision. The Airport Charges Regulations 2011(SI 2011/2491) came into force on 10 November 2011. They amended the AA 1986 and the 1994 Order to provide for mandatory procedures whereby the CAA examines whether airport operators have or are likely to acquire substantial market power.
229.Paragraph 4(2) provides for the handling of requests made before the commencement day” for an order designating an airport or revoking its designation. If the Secretary of State (or the Department of the Environment in Northern Ireland) has not made such an order (or a decision not to make such an order) before the commencement day”, the request will be treated as a request for a market power determination under the Act.
230.Paragraph 5 provides that during the interim period no orders can be made designating an airport under the AA 1986 or the 1994 Order. If, during the interim period, a designated airport ceases to be a dominant airport for the purposes of Part 1 of the Act, an order must be made revoking the designation subject to the specified restrictions set out in paragraph 5(4). The decision on whether an airport is still dominant will be made by the CAA and, if the CAA’s decision is that the airport has ceased to be dominant, the Secretary of State (or the Department of the Environment in Northern Ireland) must then make an order revoking its designation. The Secretary of State (or the Department of the Environment in Northern Ireland) is to have no discretion when making such an order.
231.Paragraph 5(4) provides that the Secretary of State (or the Department of Environment in Northern Ireland) must not revoke such an order in three circumstances: 1) during the sixty day period in which a person may make an appeal to the Competition Appeal Tribunal against the market power determination; 2) at a time when the effect of the market power determination has been suspended by the Competition Appeal Tribunal or when the Secretary of State or the Department of the Environment in Northern Ireland considers it may be suspended; or 3) if all or part of the market power determination has been set aside or quashed.
232.Paragraph 5(5) provides that where a request is made during the interim period for an order revoking an airport’s designation and the Secretary of State (or the Department of the Environment in Northern Ireland) has not made such an order before the end of this period, the request is to be treated as a request for a market power determination.
233.Paragraph 6 makes provision to address the different definitions of an “airport” under the AA 1986 or the 1994 Order and sections 66 and 67 of this Act to ensure that the provisions in this Schedule are properly applied during the interim period.
234.For example, paragraph 6(3) provides that where an airport (as defined in the AA 1986 or the 1994 Order) is designated under that Act or Order, the effect of paragraph 2(2) and (3) of Schedule 10 is that the main operator’s airport area will be treated as having met the market power test. The main operator’s airport area is the area at the airport (as defined in this Act) which is under the overall management of the person who, immediately before the commencement day”, was the operator of the airport for the purposes of the AA 1986 or the 1994 Order.
235.Paragraph 7 restricts the power under section 108 for the Secretary of State to amend Part 1 of Schedule 10 so that the power cannot be used to end the interim period before 31 March 2014. This prohibits any amendments which would in effect remove the exemption from the prohibition for people at designated airports from the prohibition before 31 March 2014. It does so in order to ensure that the current price controls affecting designated airports are not disturbed before 31 March 2014, unless the designations are revoked.
236.Part 2 of Schedule 10 makes transitional provision for airport operators that currently have the status of statutory undertakers by virtue of Part 5 of the AA 1986 or Article 25 of the 1994 Order.
237.Under the AA 1986 an airport operator has statutory undertaker status if a permission to levy charges under Part 4 of that Act has been granted in relation to the airport or it has a pending application for such a permission and the airport is not an excluded airport described in section 57(2) of that Act. Excluded airports include airports owned by certain types of local authority. Under section 37(2) of the AA 1986 permission to levy charges is necessary where the annual turnover of the airport operator exceeds £1million per financial year in at least two of the last three financial years.
238.Under new section 57A of the AA 1986 (to be inserted by Schedule 8), an airport operator will have statutory undertaker status by virtue of Part 5 of the AA 1986 if a certificate has been granted under that section in respect of the airport.
239.Paragraph 9 of Schedule 10 provides that, where a permission to levy charges is in force in respect of an airport immediately before the day on which Schedule 8 to the Act comes into force, the permission is to be treated as if it were a certificate given under section 57A of the AA 1986. So the airport operator’s status as a statutory undertaker will be uninterrupted.
240.Paragraph 10 of Schedule 10 makes similar provision for cases in which an application under section 38 of AA 1986 for permission to levy charges is pending on the commencement day”.
241.Separate arrangements exist in Northern Ireland for conferring statutory undertaker status on airport operators under the 1994 Order. Paragraphs 14 to 18 of Schedule 10 make provision in relation to airports in Northern Ireland that achieves a similar effect to the Great Britain arrangements described above.
Section 108: Power to make consequential and transitional provision
316.Section 108 enables the Secretary of State to make regulations making consequential, transitional, transitory or saving provision in relation to any provision of the Act.
Section 110: Commencement
317.Section 110 provides for commencement of the Act’s provisions. Most of the provisions of the Act are to come into force on a day appointed by order of the Secretary of State.
318.Sections 83 to 93 and Schedule 13, sections 94 to 99 and Schedule 14, section 101 and sections 105 to 107 come into force at the end of the period of two months beginning with the day Royal Assent is given. Paragraphs 1 and 7 of Schedule 10 (and section 76(5) so far as it relates to those paragraphs) and Part 3 of the Act come into force on Royal Assent.
Section 112: Channel Islands, Isle of Man and British overseas territories
319.Subsection (1) provides that the powers in section 108(1) of the CAA 1982 (power to extend to Channel Islands, Isle of Man and British overseas territories) are exercisable in relation to the amendments of that Act made by or under this Act.
320.Subsection (2) provides that the powers in section 39(3) of the ASA 1982 (extension outside the United Kingdom) are exercisable in relation to the amendments of that Act made by or under this Act.
321.Subsection (3) provides that the power in section 107 of the TA 2000 (extension outside United Kingdom) is exercisable in relation to the amendments of provisions listed in section 107(2) of that Act made by or under this Act.
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