NATS is "A World Leader In Air Traffic Management".
A bold statement. Love it or loathe it.
ATC, in spite of all the modern business-school techno-bull****, is responsible for a "Safe' Orderly and Expeditious flow of air traffic.
Any flight, departing, transiting or entering UK Airspace, is issued with an ATC clearance.
A clearance is an authorization for an aircraft to proceed under conditions specified by an Air Traffic Control unit.
How can a controller issue a clearance when there may be doubts about the safety of the environment that the aircraft he/she has 'cleared' will be operating in?
CAP493 states, under the phraseology section of witholding of ATC clearance, "It appears that your planned flight may endanger life...acknowledge"
Will the phrase 'At your discretion' become common in UK airspace, if ATC's knowledge of the aircraft operating environment is flawed?
What we have here is Nature vv Mankind's desire to make money. Nature, like Murphy, usually wins in the end.
A legal minefield? - NOT ARFF!