Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the resilience of legacy software used in NATS flight processing systems; and what discussions she has had with NATS on the timetable for replacing those systems.

The Secretary of State has commissioned the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to lead an independent investigation of the NATS outage on 8 September, which will also consider the technical issue that occurred in Prestwick on 21 September. The review will examine the causes of the incidents, broader questions relating to NATS' resilience, capital investment and modernisation plans, helping to identify any lessons needed to strengthen the resilience of the UK air traffic management system.

The Department also receives regular updates from NATS on the modernisation of its air traffic control systems, with technical changes closely monitored and overseen by the CAA as the independent regulator.