He said he drafted a policy document in 2004 on part-time working setting out minimum hours that entry pilots, like Ms Starmer, must complete before they could reduce their flying times to less than 75% of full-time hours.
Meanwhile, the US government has reached internal agreement on a policy document that for the first time links reconciliation with the US military withdrawal in 2014.
"In hindsight it appeared that once the Time for Action document was published on 3 November (2008), the commitment to doing anything serious about the problem ended on 4 November, " he said.