I'm not saying that it is the examiners responsibility to ascertain whether or not he has flow whilst out of date.
I am simply stating that if i was an examiner carrying out a licence renewal or re-validation i would, as a matter of course, check that the licence was valid before i signed it. This is something that the examiners that do my LPC/OPC checks do and it seems like simple logic to me.
I challenge anyone so suggest that that is not a sensible precaution - apart from anything else, it is a good way of ensuring that said examiner does not end up being asked under oath why he signed a document that had expired.
Let me be clear - i agree completely that the primary and overwhelming responsibility lies with the licence holder, but that does not mean that we should miss opportunities to catch errors - otherwise what is the point of checking people if not to identify and correct errors. It is, after all a "Licence Proficiency check".
OH