From the CAA's website:
The JAA will shortly publish Amendment 5 of JAR FCL 3 Medical Requirements. One of the changes is that class one medical certificate holders aged between 40 and 59 years of age, other than those engaged in single pilot commercial air transport passenger carrying operations, will have an increased certificate validity from 6 months to 1 year for examinations undertaken after the December 2006 UK implementation date.
Other changes affecting ECG validity periods and the period of validity of some class two medical certificates will also come into effect on the same date. (See change in frequency of medical examinations below for details of these other changes.)
Please note that these changes will come in December 2006 and medical examinations undertaken before this date will be subject to the current requirements, including validity periods. There will be no retrospective application of the rules.
Class one certificate holders who would be due to undertake an additional investigation (eg electrocardiogram or audiogram) with a future revalidation examination are advised to bring forward the date of the investigation to the date of their first examination on or after the December date on which these changes are implementated, so that the dates of medical examinations and investigations are synchronised. Otherwise, additional tests will become due, and have to be completed, in-between periodic medical examinations.
The exact date of implementation is subject to IT changes and will be notified in due course.
All UK Aeromedical Examiners have been briefed on these changes and will be able to answer any individual queries.
It is clear to me that some AMEs do not understand the meaning of the words commercial air transport which is emphatically NOT the same as SEP ab initio instruction, for example. Whether this is driven by their avarice or whether by ignorance of terminology is unclear; however, I will write to the CAA and request that all AMEs are re-briefed accordingly.