Section 25C Police services agreements: duration etc.
482.This section provides for PSAs to end on 31 March (the end of the financial year). It does not specify a maximum period for which a PSA may operate, so a PSA could cover more than one financial year. Section 25D does, however, require the manager of the aerodrome, the representative of the police authority for the relevant police area and the chief officer of police for that area to keep the PSA under review.
483.The section also deals with the date when PSAs must begin. There is a distinction between the first PSA and other PSAs. The first PSA must come into force on the day on which the requirement to have the PSA first applies. Subsequent PSAs must normally come into force on 1 April.
484.A requirement to have a PSA may cease to apply to an aerodrome because another ASP which does not contain policing measures comes into force. That ASP could then be varied to include policing measures. Subsections (4) and (5) make special provision for this case so as to ensure that the PSA runs from the date when the variation takes effect and the aerodrome is once again required to have a PSA.
485.The discretionary power at subsection (6) will allow the Secretary of State to direct that a PSA is to come into force at an alternative date to those provided for at subsections (2) to (5) where a dispute between parties necessitates this.
486.The practical effect of the amendment made by paragraph 12(3) of Schedule 6 is that an aerodrome which ceases to be a relevant aerodrome for the purposes of Part 2A of the Act but which then becomes a relevant aerodrome again is granted a three month 'grace period' between the point at which an ASP is agreed and the point when the requirement to have a PSA in force recommences.