Controlled airspace handover
A friend of mine was recently flying IFR from Jersey to Ireland. When approaching the limit of the Jersey Class A airspace he was handed over to London Information. Upon contact with London Information he was asked to remain outside controlled airspace. This threw him a bit as he was already in controlled airspace so how could he remain outside it. He eventually explained to London Information that he wanted to enter UK controlled airspace to continue his IFR flight to Ireland. London Information coordinated this as he eventually received his clearance just as he reached the limit of the Jersey Class A. As I am about to do a similar trip IFR in a few weeks time I was wondering the following:
(a) should Jersey not have handed him over to a air traffic control unit rather than London Information since he had made no request to leave controlled airspace.
(b) should London Information not have known already that he was in controlled airspace and the request to remain outside controlled airspace was meaningless.
Tolka