Establishing the costs and value of ATOL

The ATOL arm of the CAA continues to move glacially, with delays as standard.

To try to make sense of their behaviour we have made several FOI Requests to the CAA and DFT. Some areas of their behaviour appear sensitive - where they are refusing to share information.

The ATT is controlled by the CAA, they by the DFT and all answer to the Secretary of State of Transport. Given the public nature of these entities, transparency must be mandatory in the public interest.

The FOIRs reveal that the ATOL arm of the CAA receives income from three sources adding up to £8M in a year. Some of this funding comes from the ATT (£1.8M), which is funded by travellers, some from tax-payers (£0.2M), and most from Travel Organisers (£6M) paying a fee to have their annual ATOL vetted and monitored. This is not all the costs relating to financial security in travel: AIR, ATIPAC and other quangos. Is this £8M+ value for money?

The heavily redacted minutes of the ATT trustee meetings suggest much discussion with the DFT about whether the ATT continues to be guaranteed by the taxpayer. To continue as a going concern, the ATT relies upon the ‘recent written assurance by the Secretary of State for Transport’ that the taxpayer will cover the shortfall, should the ATT run out of money. The CAA and DFT have refused to share this recent written assurance and this decision is now under review.

The Civil Aviation Authority in partnership with IATA deliver outstanding safety, air traffic and other pure aviation matters. However it never seemed appropriate for them to oversee financial regulation, which would be far better suited to the FCA.

A link to the FOIRs to date.