NATS-Annual-Report-2015

Annual Report and Accounts 2015 | NATS Holdings Limited
Governance 70
Reports from Board Committees
(continued)
Safety Review Committee report
The role of the Safety Review Committee
The role of the Safety Review Committee is to support the
Board in the discharge of its accountabilities for the safe
provision of operational air traffic services, monitoring of
NATS’ safety performance, and for security arrangements in
group companies. It meets quarterly as a formal committee
and has separate in-depth briefings as required. Its remit
includes the requirements to:
> monitor and review the effectiveness of the safety
arrangements in place in the group;
> review the delivery of the group’s safety and security
objectives through its operations, structures and
processes;
> review the quality of the group’s safety performance;
> monitor the implementation of safety enhancement
programmes; and
> make recommendations to the Board for improving the
group’s safety and security management systems.
The Committee is chaired by Iain McNicoll and there are two
other non-executive directors as members, Will Facey and
Roger Cato. Will Facey joined the Committee in November
2014 replacing Warwick Brady. The following are invited to
attend each meeting by standing invitation:
> Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director,
Operations;
> Director of Safety, NATS;
> Managing Director, Services;
> Operations Directors of Swanwick, Prestwick and Airports;
and
> Operations Director, Strategy.
The Head of Facilities Management and the Chief
Information Officer formally report to the Committee on the
security arrangements in NATS twice per annum.
During the year, the Committee took advice from the
following special advisers, who were invited to each meeting
by standing invitation:
> Dr Don Lloyd, Director Health & Safety and Environment
for Genel Energy plc and Visiting Professor in Risk at
Brunel University;
> Professor Don Harris, Professor of Human Factors,
Faculty of Engineering and Computing at Coventry
University; and
> Captain John Monks, Head of Aviation Safety, British
Airways (from November 2014).
Main activities of the Committee
during the year
a. Operational safety
As part of its safety governance and oversight of the
NATS operations, the Committee receives regular in-depth
reports and briefings on safety performance and associated
improvement activities. Key topics throughout the last
year were:
> Infringements of controlled airspace: Infringements
are an issue for the CAA (the UK regulator) and,
whilst NATS can, and has, taken mitigating actions to
protect aircraft operating within controlled airspace
from infringing aircraft, solutions to the causes of
infringements lie with the CAA. The Committee has
therefore encouraged and supported the NATS
executives in engaging with the CAA, and met the
CAA’s Director Safety and Airspace Regulation at its
December 2014 meeting. This cooperative activity
has resulted in the establishment of five Infringement
Hotspot improvement projects. These are joint projects
with the Airport Operators Association and the Airspace
Infringement Working Group. Over the following year, we
will continue to monitor and support these projects to
completion, and we will maintain a dialogue with the CAA
on this key safety topic.
Governance