Proposed Amendments to Acceptable Means of Compliance and Guidance Material for UK Regulation (EU) 2019/945 and UK Regulation (EU) 2019/947

Overview

This consultation forms part of the UK Civil Aviation Authority's (CAA) ongoing work to enable Unmanned Aircraft System operations in UK Airspace in the Open Category and Specific Category. A key component of the CAA Future of Flight Programme. 

Why your views matter

The regulatory review of the Open Category is in its final stages with new regulations due to come into force on 1 January 2026. This is an important and exciting time for the Open category which is set to reach its full potential with the implementation of class markings.

The CAA has published a suite of UAS policies designed to deliver our Future of Flight target to scale up UAS operations. We are working hard to accelerate the introduction of new means of compliance, simplifying policy, and implementing feedback from industry. This update includes a number of new means of compliance for ground risk mitigations and containment as well as other important updates.

We recommend all respondents first read the Consultation Document CAP 3170, which outlines the purpose, scope, and rationale behind the proposed changes. For full context and to respond accurately to the consultation questions, please also review the draft AMC/GM document CAP 3171, which contains the proposed amendments.

The feedback provided to this consultation will be essential to enable the CAA to develop policy that supports the UAS industry

What happens next

Once the consultation has closed and we have considered feedback, we will publish our consultation reply document. This will summarise the feedback and set out our final proposed policy positions. If legislative change is required to deliver these proposals, we will submit our formal opinion to the Department for Transport, who will consider whether to implement our recommendations in a Statutory Instrument.