On 26 July 2018 the UK Department for Transport issued a consultation entitled “Taking Flight: The future of drones in the UK”. The consultation ran until 17 September 2018 and received 5,061 responses. It proposed policies for drone use and enforcement, namely:
• A minimum age requirement for operators for small unmanned aircraft; • Whether the 1 km flight restriction around protected aerodromes is sufficient; • A proposal to mandate and regulate a Flight Information and Notification System (FINS), or to just regulate the FINS; • The powers required by enforcement bodies in order to properly police drone use and penalise incorrect use, including possible use of fixed penalty notices;
• Counter drone technology system proposals.
The proposals built on the legislation made by the Benefits of drones to the UK economy and The Air Navigation (Amendment) Order 2018.
The UK Government Response to this consultation was published on 7 January 2019. It outlines the Government’s decisions,
including to: • Legislate to give the police greater powers to tackle drone misuse, including the power to issue on the spot fines; • Better protect airports by extending the area around airports and runways in which drones are banned from being flown.
The Government Response can be accessed here.
Note: All documents referred to in this article can be found under the heading United Kingdom in Regs Watch at this link.