Backpacker - Clearly you've put a bit of time and thought into it and I would be delighted to see / have a copy of the code. I like your ideas.
A UK wide facility? In my opinion the only way forward and to make any progress at all is to make this available in those Counties who are willing. The others might well follow suit, they may not. Either way it becomes a whole lot better for everyone in participating Counties.
IO540 - Indeed the FAX issue was raised but we overcame it with a little logic. All these agencies do actually have and use email. They are all able to create or to nominate an email account to receive the GARs, it simply takes the will to do it. So we are back to the all the benefits I mentioned.
Email failure. It can happen, usually at the receiving end. The set up here copies to the sender, us as the host and all the agencies. Should one agency not receive it then it's no drama. As any of these agencies will tell you they are not overly concerned about genuine errors, mistakes or a one off non-receipt. (I might add there are individuals who try to make more of it than it warrants but it never comes to more than a few tuts). With a copy it can easily be proven it was actually sent.
SPAM filters I didn't have a problem because it is sent as plain text, no attachments and no links. Simply white listing the host email solves any additional issues.
Storing the form information, our system does it. I overcame data protection issues using a piece of code allowing the details to be cached when the form is submitted. It's computer and browser specific so if you complete the form on the same computer using the same browser you can do it very quickly indeed. Not every box is cached so with 'public' computers in flying clubs (the worry is someone sends the form pretending to be you) they would need to know or guess those details. It would be highly unlikely to happen in the first place and equally unlikely the 'missing' information would be known or guessed correctly.
Obviously having an official website running official software has the warm fluffy feeling of security and reassurance.