Ukatco-535
You have given me some food for thought. Your comment of aircraft being handed to you possibly without speed co ordination from the previous controller, I have seen ( fairly infrequently, i have to add ). From the flying side of things when you are very regularly flying specific STAR's and SID's we generally take speed control to mean 2 things. On a SID " no ATC speed" to us means - there are lots of aircraft we would like to handle and the quicker you can get out of our sector the easier that will be.
On the STAR's however, when we ask you about speed, it is to aid the flow of all inbounds to the airport, as, from previous experience, the speeds for arrival ,for instance across London can vary from, bend the wings off to try not to stall clean.
When we ask about speed we are trying to help ( well at least i am, i might be a bit nieve about others intentions) anyway.
Can anyone who is reading this please re read the origional question and see if they can answer point b)