United Kingdom

UAS Regulations

The United Kingdom withdrew from the European Union on 31/01/2020 at midnight (Brussels time) and is now a Third Country. Under the terms of its Withdrawal Agreement, EU Law will apply for the UK during a transition period until 31/12/2020. During this time, the UK will be treated as an EU member state, but will no longer take part in any decision making or decision shaping activities at EASA (‘principle of non-participation’).

The European Commission is in the process of updating some of the content on this website in light of the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union. If the site contains content that does not yet reflect the withdrawal of the United Kingdom, it is unintentional and will be addressed.
https://info.caa.co.uk/brexit/drones/

Following the UK’s exit from the EU on 31 January, a transition period will apply until 31 December 2020. During this period, the UK and the aviation sector will continue to follow EU law and to participate in the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) system. As a result, businesses and individuals operating in the UK should see no change to existing conditions during the transition period, while the longer-term UK-EU relationship on aviation is determined. Please see the homepage for further details.

A fuller outline of the position as the UK enters the transition period is available: https://www.caa.co.uk/Our-work/About-us/brexit/

Update: 2020 (harmonised regulations for EASA Member States)

On 28 February 2019 the EASA Committee has given its positive vote to the European Commission’s proposal for an Implementing Act regulating the operations of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in the open and specific categories. This proposal is mainly based on EASA’s Opinion No 01/2018 [ https://www.easa.europa.eu/document-library/opinions/opinion-012018 ].

On 11 June 2019 common European rules on drones, Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/945 [ https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg_del/2019/945/oj ]& Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/947 [ https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg_impl/2019/947/oj ], have been published to ensure drone operations across Europe are safe and secure. The rules will amongst others help to protect the safety and the privacy of EU citizens while enabling the free circulation of drones and a level playing field within the European Union.
 
A major milestone in the regulation of operations of Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) in Europe was achieved on 10th October 2019 with the publication of the Acceptable Means of Compliance (AMC) and Guidance materials (GM )  [ https://www.easa.europa.eu/document-library/agency-decisions/ed-decision-2019021r ] for the Regulation on UAS operations in the open and specific category.
With the publication, EASA will support UAS operators and Member States in complying with the adopted EU regulation. The document includes the description of a risk assessment methodology to evaluate the danger of an UAS operation and to identify mitigation measures to make the operation safe.
The methodology for conducting a risk assessment of the operations in the specific category is called SORA (Specific Operation Risk Assessment) and offers a very structured approach to evaluate all aspects and identify mitigations and safety objectives.

The timeframe for the European changes is listed here [ https://www.easa.europa.eu/drones-regulatory-framework-timeline ] and may change due COVID-19
 
All other related documents can be found here :[  https://www.easa.europa.eu/latest-news?news_cat[]=2204&  ]  (e.g. Opinion “Standard scenarios for UAS operations in the ‘specific’ category”; Opinion 01/2020 - High-level regulatory framework for the U-space; ).
 
All other related documents can be found here :[  https://www.easa.europa.eu/latest-news?news_cat[]=2204& ]  (e.g. Opinion “Standard scenarios for UAS operations in the ‘specific’ category”; Opinion 01/2020 - High-level regulatory framework for the U-space; ).
 

[LATEST UPDATE: May 2020, David Guerin; the information below may not be up to date and will be incorrect after EASA standardised rules come into effect]


There are two main sites for information regarding drone operations within the U.K.

https://dronesafe.uk/  [developed by NATS and the CAA]

and the CAA mainpage with covering all aspects of unmanned aircraft and drone operations

https://www.caa.co.uk/Consumers/Unmanned-aircraft-and-drones/


[Updated August 2019, by David Guerin]