I can sort of see your point rogervisual, if the aircraft was already in the hold then it should probably be assumed it was on a procedural service. If it wasnt then basics fair game.
I think the question was asked while we were in the hold, but only on the first occasion that it made any difference at all, i.e. when ATC was aware of an IFR inbound that needed to descend through our level. For the rest of the time, there was no other IFR traffic.
Hey Bookworm, why didn't your man just say procedural?
I guess because it was a gin clear day and, in the absence of a descent-in-VMC, it would have been a real pain to separate us. As it was the other inbound had an extra 1000 ft to lose in the procedure, and if he'd had to wait to pass an outbound DME fix, the rate of descent required would have been uncomfortable.