Written question asked by Bernard Jenkin (Conservative) on Monday, 6 November 2000, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 9 November 2000. It was answered by Chris Mullin (Labour) on Thursday, 9 November 2000 on behalf of the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions.

Dept of the Environment Transport and the Regions

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, if he will list the incidents of NATS software and systems failure since 31st July 2000, indicating the duration and severity of their effects.

Answer: Mr. Jenkin: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will list the incidents of NATS software and systems failure since 31 July 2000, indicating the duration and severity of their effects. [137528] Mr. Mullin: The Flight Data Processing System (FDPS) at West Drayton has failed three times since 31 July. On none of these occasions was safety impaired. These failures were: (i) On 12 August 2000, FDPS was suspended for one hour and thirteen minutes following the rejection of an incorrect flight plan. This resulted in the imposition of short term restrictions which necessitated some flights being held at London airports; (ii) On 3 November 2000, FDPS was suspended for 17 minutes following the rejection of a flight plan. This resulted in six aircraft being delayed by 30 minutes; and (iii) On 4 November 2000, controllers noted FDPS was failing to print accurate data strips for flights using Stansted. A decision was taken to revert to a previous version of the software known to be free of faults. This took 2 hours and 10 minutes to install successfully and during this period aircraft experienced delays of up to one hour. NATS is planning to correct the failure in the software which caused the printing error as soon as possible. In spite of these failures, FDPS continues to perform well with both the performance and robustness of the system having been enhanced since the major failure on 17 June.

Secondary information