Jumbo Driver
You've hit the nail on the head with your phrase 'arse covering exercise' - particularly when it comes to NATS management.
Unfortunately there has been a growing trend of reacting to incidents by brinign in stupid rules/phraseology when in fact what should have happened is the ATCO who had the incident should have been rebriefed by his LCE.
It is an arse covering exercise we have nowadays, it's getting moreso by the day. Unfortunately it's ATCOS and pilots who have to suffer for it.