Written question asked by Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat) on Tuesday, 8 November 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 10 November 2005. It was answered by Karen Buck (Labour) on Wednesday, 16 November 2005 on behalf of the Department for Transport.

Commercial Aviation (Duty Hours)

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport on how many occasions the Civil Aviation Authority has (a) issued warnings to and (b) made findings against (i) pilots and (ii) flight crew in respect of breaches of the annual limit for duty hours for commercial aviation, in the last year for which figures are available.

Answer: UK airlines are required to have a flight and duty time limitation scheme approved by the Civil Aviation Authority and to take all reasonable steps to ensure that all members of their flight crew comply with the scheme. Such schemes have to include the statutory annual flight duty time limit imposed on individual members of flight crew. Flight time limitation schemes are designed to ensure that flight crew do not exceed annual duty time limits and breaches of the limits are few. The CAA does not keep a central record of breaches of duty time limits, but does audit operators records on a regular basis and, if required, ensures that changes to working patterns are instituted.

Secondary information