Charge proposal for the UK Drone Registration Scheme

Overview

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 your views matter

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.

What happens next

Using your responses, the CAA will make a final decision on the Drone Registration Scheme charges in July 2019. 

Further information on the Drone Registration Scheme will be communicated to the public from September 2019 through a dedicated campaign.  

These activities will be carried out ahead of the registration opening date, 1 October 2019 with registration of drone operators becoming mandatory from 30 November 2019.