Yes, SIR!!!
Link?
Thank you so much for posting that link to the guidance notes, Bosco. I knew you would be helpful 
I found them anyway, here GAR Instructions August 2019 local copy.
They are quite interesting, too. Significant recent changes which not many know about.
Terrorism Act 2000 Reporting Requirements
To meet the reporting requirements set out in the Terrorism Act 2000, in addition to sending the GAR
to the NCU or submitting via an online portal, you must also submit the completed January 2015 GAR
in an Excel format to the Police Force responsible for the departure/arrival port by email using the
contact details shown in Annex D
So the concession for the CTA (Ireland, C.I., IOM) to use just the email address of [email protected] is no longer acceptable.
And it does look like this address no longer forwards the GARs to the required local police force. That worked for a few years, since around 2014. But the last few trips I did to the C.I. I got the local police asking me for a copy of the GAR. It appears even they don’t know of the change of rules; if they did they would have been a lot less polite.
The more subtle thing is that Shoreham is shown as Designated for Customs
It is quite hard to work out what exactly this gives you. I spoke to someone who researched it and he reckons it means you can go to non EU destinations. But, these still need 24hrs PNR on the GAR, except the CTA which needs 12hrs. But the fact that Shoreham is not designated for Immigration seems to make this moot. It is a fact that people fly everywhere abroad from airports which are not designated for C or I or P, though that chart shows all of them as having a Certificate of Agreement. Shoreham is one of the very few UK airports listed in this way.
But bizzarely Farnborough EGLF – the “big international bizjet hub” – ranks exactly the same as Shoreham! That is also a change, because Farnborough used to be different from Shoreham and that was a mistake on the GAR guidance notes in years past.
This post is probably correct.
Peter wrote:
I thought the GAR form covers all airfields, including farm strips.
They can only for flights to/from EU (excl. CIs, CTA) under 4h notice
Peter wrote:
n an Excel format to the Police Force responsible for the departure/arrival port by email using the
contact details shown in Annex D
Sigh.
What happened to the Red Tape challenge?
I’m not sending it in Excel, I don’t run Microsoft software – they’ll have to accept it in PDF (and OnlineGAR can generate it so I don’t have to fill it out twice)
an Excel format to the Police Force responsible for the departure/arrival port by email using the
contact details shown in Annex D
That is bunkum. The Act hasn’t changed. The requirement is merely to call at or leave from a designated port or to give at least 12 hours notice to a constable.
Under a completely separate provision the police may submit a request in writing to the aircraft’s agent or operator to provide specified passenger and cargo information, etc. “as soon as practicable”.
As pilots, we sometimes find it administratively convenient to anticipate such a request.
The Act doesn’t mention a GAR or Microsoft Excel. You can write the date and primary and alternate destinations of your flight on the side of a cow and give it to a police officer in the street (if you’re lucky enough to find one), although at current livestock prices Excel would be cheaper.
The requirement is merely to call at or leave from a designated port or to give at least 12 hours notice to a constable.
Maybe there is where the issue lies. Would a court regard an email sent to an email address, which is not listed in the GAR guidance notes as suitable for the CTA ([email protected]), as giving notice to a police constable?
The Act doesn’t state which police constable so it would seem to me that simply shooting off the GAR to both [email protected] and any of the police emails listed in the guidance notes, would comply.
Whoever operates GAR filing services must be aware of this stuff. Maybe @carlmeek might know more?
I’ve emailed @carlmeek asking if we could have automatic emailing of the PDF to the relevant police force, it would certainly at least make the process a lot less onerous for people in the CTA.
Incidentally, the Red Tape challenge recommended that the GAR be eliminated for CTA flights. Of course, no action has been taken. Once the Police get a power, they rarely want to give it up even if it’s pointless.
I’m just awaiting clarification on a couple of emails after which I will come back with some thoughts.
You need to be careful about notice, and rules on this.
There are three agencies, and you need to consider each one individually.
Customs. As I understand it, customs are enerally not required for intra EU travel to/from the UK. But I’m not 100% on that. However places such as the Channel Islands are not in the UK, and so customs is relevant to flights with them.
Immigration. Generally relevant for all international flights to/from the UK.
Police. Applies to flights to/from different parts of the common travel area.
For flights where the police notification is required, then the police also handle the immigration. Where the police isn’t relevant, then immigration needs to be separately considered.
An airport being designated doesn’t mean it’s designated for all three agencies. Just consider each one individually.
The police rules are given in the Terrorism Act Schedule 7. It’s a fairly simple read.
The important parts are in subsection 12
12(1)This paragraph applies to a journey
to Great Britain from the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland or any of the Islands,
from Great Britain to any of those places,
(c)to Northern Ireland from Great Britain, the Republic of Ireland or any of the Islands, or
from Northern Ireland to any of those places.
Where a ship or aircraft is employed to carry passengers for reward on a journey to which this paragraph applies the owners or agents of the ship or aircraft shall not arrange for it to call at a port in Great Britain or Northern Ireland for the purpose of disembarking or embarking passengers unless—
the port is a designated port, or
an examining officer approves the arrangement.
Where an aircraft is employed on a journey to which this paragraph applies otherwise than to carry passengers for reward, the captain of the aircraft shall not permit it to call at or leave a port in Great Britain or Northern Ireland unless—
the port is a designated port, or
he gives at least 12 hours’ notice in writing to a constable for the police area in which the port is situated (or, where the port is in Northern Ireland, to a member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary).
A designated port is a port which appears in the Table at the end of this Schedule.
The Secretary of State may by order—
add an entry to the Table;
remove an entry from the Table
You’ll see that you do need to give the notice to a police constable in the area, and it needs to be in writing. Obviously the form isn’t specified, so it could be written in any form. The GAR form makes it easy in the sense that you shouldn’t get any hassle if you complete it correctly. Doing otherwise, while legal, will probably result in queries about why you didn’t file it, where you sent it to, accusations that it’s not legal and you’ll have to spend needless time defending your position.
Also note subsection 2 deals with flights for reward, and subsection 3 for flights not for reward.
Also note that it’s a designated airport or give notice. Not both. But remember this is just for police; customs nor immigration need to be separately considered.
The customs and immigration is much more difficult. Bookworm gave a link to the legislation previously. But it’s not as easy reading as the police side and it allows the Customs authorities to make up their own rules outside parliament. (Something of an eye opener for someone from a republic!)
A number of years ago, Customs made a ruling that you had to give notice in advance even if using a customs designated airport, but didn’t impose a time limit on it .Not being able to find those rules, I’ve no idea if UK customs are implementing that correctly.
Jacko wrote:
The Act doesn’t mention a GAR or Microsoft Excel. You can write the date and primary and alternate destinations of your flight on the side of a cow and give it to a police officer in the street (if you’re lucky enough to find one), although at current livestock prices Excel would be cheaper.
This is how I’ve always interpreted it. I could drop a note off at my local police station, or send a email to any of their published email addresses (whether or not they have anything to do with the matter at hand) and I’d have satisfied the requirements of the Act. In many walks of life the police are keen on creating particular ways in which they want you to comply with the law, and they don’t shirk from giving everyone the impression that their preferences are a legal requirement.
In the real world I find it conducive to a hassle-free life to just send them the form at the address at which they have asked to receive it. In earlier days I kept a pdf on my laptop and edited it as required before sending it to the NCU email address and (usually) Thames Valley Police. Now I just use SkyDemon and trust that they send it wherever it needs to go. I’ve never used an Excel file.
