UK Drone Registration Scheme to cost users £2.8 Million
This is an absolute travesty that might put several more nails into the model aircraft hobby coffin.
Please react to this one, it will make absolutely no difference to safety and security and is based on over inflated numbers from an industry desperate to try and clear the skies to make a perceived living.
I would be very surprised if there are 170,000 folks that are going to register, perhaps the fee should be added at the checkout when it’s bought from an electronics store or UK website. Maybe a purchaser should provide proof of registration before being allowed to purchase?
Make a noise people! This will not make the sky safer.
This consultation covers our charge proposal for the Government mandated UK Drone Registration Scheme, which is due to be launched from 1 October 2019 and is a legal requirement under the Air Navigation Order (ANO) from 30 November 2019.
The Government has provided a significant amount of taxpayer funding to cover the costs of developing the new drone registration scheme up until 1 October 2019.
From that date onwards, the costs of running the scheme will be borne by those who use it under the user pays principle. This is because as a statutory body, the CAA has to recover its costs from those it regulates.
This is the funding model used for its other aviation regulation functions, for example regulation of pilots, engineers, general aviation, airlines and airports.
Why We Are Consulting
We are proposing an annual charge of £16.50 for each operator.
This is to cover the cost of running the registration scheme, which includes:
- IT hosting and security costs;
- CAA personnel and helpdesk;
- identity verification;
- a national education and awareness campaign; and
- costs of further upgrades to the initial drone registration service.
We have based our costs on an assumption of 170,000 registrations over the initial 18 month period.
More information about the proposed charge, what we will do if the volumes of users are significantly different from those assumed and further background is available in the full consultation document.
How To Respond
We can only accept submissions to this consultation online. Follow the link under Give Us Your Views to complete an online response.
The consultation will close on 7 June 2019.
