Secondary surveillance radar is a combined radar and communication system, which provides aircraft position (range and azimuth) on the radar side and identity and height on the communication side. It is a main working tool in Air Traffic Control today and the information it produces is an ingredient in providing separation between aircraft in flight. This paper is concerned only with the reliability of the identity (Mode C) and the height (Mode A) data, and not with the radar position data as such. ‘Reliability’ is taken to mean ‘can the values reported by the SSR be relied upon?’ Consequently we are not concerned with cases where an interrogation elicits no response, but only with responses which are present but not correct. Furthermore, a ‘Mode C discrepancy’ is defined as a read-out that disagrees with the altimeter reading observed by the pilot, so that we are not concerned with altimeter errors, but only with the faithfulness (or otherwise) with which the SSR reproduces the altimeter reading. In cases where the Mode C read-out is obviously wrong, but no pilot's report is available, it is not always possible to distinguish between an altimeter error and a Mode C discrepancy.