To go back to the point made about Examiners......
FE (H) (PPL) are appointed by CAA FCL and may do PPL skills tests, and in addition LST/LPC at private or professional licence level; TRE (H) are appointed by CAA FOI and may do LST/LPC and OPC. Examiners may hold more than one examiner qualification. There are a few, very few, industry FE (H) (CPL) in addition to one full-time and several other available CAA staff examiners.
As to Standards:
All Examiners are appointed by the CAA or other JAA ‘competent authority’. In UK, Examiners are designated for their experience and personal qualities, and to some extent by geographic need, on initial appointment. Examiners are trained and checked before being authorised to examine, must follow the guidelines in the Flight Examiners Handbook, and are subject to an observed test or check (by CAA or FIE) every three years as part of the re-appointment process. (Of course, there’s a fee, too.) They must also be currently rated as FI (or TRI for multi-engine TRE).
Whilst there may be some variation in standard amongst examiners, hopefully this is within an acceptable bracket, based on the criteria above.
As to Independence:
Examiners may not, without permission in writing from the CAA, examine students that they have taught. They may, of course, be students of other FI at the RTF/FTO/TRTO where the examiner is based.
TRE are appointed to a company and will usually be company employees, and the company’s appointed TREs will fly with company pilots to do their LPC/OPC. (Can still not do an initial type rating check on own students.)
It would, IMHO, be impractical for the CAA to specifically allocate examiners at PPL GFT level from within the pool of FE, either CPL or PPL. Ditto with Licence (Grant of Type-Rating) Skills Tests, and, given the often short notice, totally impossible to legislate who does particular Licence Proficiency Checks.
From the student’s point of view, I doubt that the PPL student in the North of Scotland would be happy if the CAA had to allocate an FE from the South Coast, with the poor student stumping up for travel expenses. (OK, extreme, I know, but you get the point….)
And lastly, to whom is my responsibility as an Examiner?
• To the candidate (must be properly trained, objectively tested, and be safe and competent)
• To the CAA (they appoint me)
• To myself (see previous 2 bullet points, and NB potential for litigation….)