Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-04-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his consultation on drones expected to be published before summer will include options on the classification of drones generally; and whether he has assessed existing weight categories as appropriate.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The Department for Transport (DfT) is currently working with the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to develop consistent, EU-wide safety rules for drones.

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is developing new rules for all drones that are proportionate to the risk of their specific operation rather than based on weight categories.

The Government will seek to ensure that UK regulation is consistent with this approach. EASA has conducted a consultation and impact assessment on the approach and therefore we do not currently intend to consult further on these measures.