Explanatory Statement
Civil Aviation Safety Regulations 1998
Exemption — recency requirement
Legislation
Subsection 98 (1) of the Civil Aviation Act 1988 (the Act) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations for the Act and in the interests of the safety of air navigation.
Regulation 65.025 of the Civil Aviation Regulations 1998 (CASR 1998) provides that the holder of an ATC licence or a flight service licence satisfies the recency requirement in relation to an endorsement at a particular time, if he or she has performed the duties required by the relevant function at the aerodrome, or in relation to the airspace to which the endorsement relates, for at least 5 hours within the previous 21 days.
Under subregulation 11.160 (1) of CASR 1998, CASA may grant an exemption from compliance with a provision of CASR 1998. Airservices Australia (AA) has applied for an exemption. In deciding whether to grant an exemption, CASA must regard as paramount the preservation of an acceptable level of safety.
Under subregulation 11.205 (1) of CASR 1998, CASA may impose conditions on an exemption if this is necessary in the interests of the safety of air navigation. Under regulation 11.210, it is an offence to fail to comply with a condition of an exemption.
Under regulation 11.225 of CASR 1998, an exemption must be published on the World Wide Web. Under subregulation 11.230 (1), an exemption ceases on the day specified within it (but no longer than 2 years after its commencement), or if no day is specified, 2 years after commencement.
AA reviewed the recency requirement of regulation 65.025 of CASR 1998 and noted that AA staff in Sydney are unable to use the Precision Runway Monitoring simulator (PRMS) to meet the recency requirement of subregulation 65.025 (1) of CASR 1998 as operational and weather conditions often do not require operation of the PRMS for periods in excess of 21 days. The use of the PRMS was identified as risk mitigation in the 2002 PRM Safety Case in the case of controller recency training and emergency operations. The numbers of emergency breakouts that occur per year are estimated by AA to be less than an average of 2 per year, so the PRMS is integral to ATC training for this situation, using both runway directions.
The instrument exempts ATC licence or flight licence holders from the recency requirement in subregulation 65.025 (1) of CASR 1998. The exemption will recognise periods spent on the PRMS as satisfying the recency requirement of regulation 65.025. To ensure the safety of air navigation, conditions have been imposed. The holder of an ATC licence or flight service licence must perform at least 5 hours of duties within the previous 21 days. AA must advise CASA in writing of any proposed changes to the PRMS. CASA must approve any changes to the PRMS. CASA has also visited the facility.
Legislative Instruments Act
Under subparagraph 6 (d) (i) of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003 (the LIA), an instrument is a legislative instrument for section 5 of the LIA if it is declared to be a disallowable instrument under legislation in force before the commencement of the LIA. Regulation 11.215 of CASR 1998 declares an exemption to be a disallowable instrument. The exemption is, therefore, a legislative instrument and it is subject to tabling and disallowance in the Parliament under sections 38 and 42 of the LIA.
Consultation
Consultation under section 17 of the LIA has not been undertaken. This is a renewal of a previous instrument, CASA EX51/08, which was made after appropriate consultation.
The instrument commences on 1 August 2010 and stops having effect at the end of July 2012.
The exemption has been made by the Director Aviation Safety, on behalf of CASA, in accordance with subsection 73 (2) of the Act.
[Instrument number CASA EX64/10]