Avmed delays in granting medical certificates - is our old certificate kept alive?

[Clinton McKenzie]

I sent this PS:

PS: Here is what the Explanatory Statement for the regulations which inserted Part 11 into CASR says about Part 11E, with underlining added by me:

Subpart 11.E Time-limited authorisations

New regulations 11.135 to 11.150 - Continuation of time-limited authorisations until application for renewal is decided

The purpose and effect of Subpart 11.E ise to extend the operation of an authorisation past what would otherwise be its expiry date if the holder of the authorisation has applied for a new authorisation in the same terms as the old, and CASA has not made a decision on the application prior to the old authorisation's expiry date.

For the holder of an authorisation to obtain the benefit of the extension of the old authorisation, the holder must have:

· applied for a new authorisation which is substantively the same as the old authorisation;

· made the application a reasonable period of time before the expiry of the old authorisation (if the holder is a corporation, 90 days, if an individual, 21 days); and

· made an otherwise complete application.

Further, if CASA requests further information from the applicant within a period of time, and the applicant does not supply that information in time, the authorisation expires at that time.

The process for granting a new authorisation to replace an old time-limited authorisation is largely the same as the process for granting an initial authorisation, with the exception that the holder of the authorisation need not include information or a document in the application for variation which the holder has already given CASA and which has not changed since it was given.

Otherwise, all of the provisions of Subpart 11.B apply to the application for the new authorisation as if it were an application for a grant of an initial authorisation. CASA is not obliged to issue the new authorisation on the same terms as the old (although in most cases such a decision would be subject to external merits review by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal).

That explanation is entirely consistent with the evident and reasonable purpose of Subpart 11E. There is nothing in that explanation to support an interpretation which excludes the holders of any kind of the defined time-limited authorisations from the protection afforded by CASR 11.140. The sameness criterion is about the substance of the old and new time-limited authorisation, not a mechanism to exclude a whole class of time-limited authorisations from the application of CASR 11.140.

CASA will hopefully understand the implications of extrinsic materials such as the Explanatory Statement of regulations in interpreting the regulations.

Regards

Clinton McKenzie