Thanks for all the answers - seems there’s differences of opinion even here...
I guess if ATO’s feel a CRI can’t teach on an expired license, they probably shouldn’t assign one to someone with a 7 year lapsed rating before clarifying license situation.....
Anyway, I’ll have an FI at my alternate ATO (although they thought a CRI was OK), so hopefully no further setbacks in my retraining (lost a whole week of time I’d allotted to retraining sorting this out).
Not sure I’ll have the impetus/finances to retake the IMC test, as I imagine I’d need a fair bit of retraining to do some aspects of it (probably the ‘flying’ bit would be OK, but not the holds etc) but good to know I have the option. Bit confused about why I’d end up with two licenses (EASA and national), but I’ve never really enjoyed all the paperwork/bureaucracy of aviation - for a mere PPL it mostly seems unfathomable (to instructors/examiners maybe it all makes sense!)
Fingers crossed I’ll have my rating back soon, and be flying again....