£16.50 for licence to own a drone in the UK

[The Boatman]

CAA consulation

From the BBC:

“Every drone and model aircraft owner in the UK could be charged £16.50 a year under plans by the aviation regulator.
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is consulting on introducing a licence fee to cover the costs of operating the new drone registration scheme.
From November, drone owners would have to register their details on a database and drone flyers would complete a free online safety test.”

 

[Porky]

£16.50 is a small amount to pay when you enjoy your hobby. Yep we all knew this was happening in November in the UK, I personally think it’s a good idea?

 

[djiboi]

"free online safety test.” Seriously though, it's not too bad. As an ex-fisherman, I was used to paying more than that for my hobby. The worst thing is, only the honest law abiding flyers will pay.

 

[THE CYBORG]

£16.50 doesn't sound like a lot but once a licence is introduced what will we be paying in a few years time?

You can bet the cost will continually rise.

 

[Porky]

£16.50 doesn't sound like a lot but once a licence is introduced what will we be paying in a few years time?

You can bet the cost will continually rise.

Yeah you could be right but that’s the same thing as everything else in our life’s. I’ll definitely be paying so I know I’m all legal and have nothing to worry about if I get approached from the men in blue?

 

[old man mavic]

we all knew this was coming,simply because of the idiots who choose to fly outside the rules,lets hope those who dont comply get there UAVs taken from them and face fines or worse,maybe then people will get the message,and fly within the rules,to me the biggest problem is going to be enforcement,who is going to ask people if they are registered,the police are already overstretched as it is, maybe it will be council enforcement officers who will be the ones who do it lets hope whoever is tasked with the job has the correct training so they can be correct when they make a judgement

 

[zocalo]

The BBC article doesn't say it, but the proposed fine for not registering is £1,500. We can probably assume confiscation of the drone as well since it's a criminal rather than civil law, but not much in the way of details on that yet. They've also got to catch someone flying without a license, which might be tricky if recent incidents are anything to go by. Still at the "consultation" phase and there's a lot of push back from various groups like the BMFA over the amount of the fee and the fact it's annual, so we'll see what actually happens in July.

Personally, while I agree with Porky that £16.50/pa isn't much in the scheme of things for something you enjoy, it doesn't compare well with other countries with similar schemes. I'd also like to see more carrot to go with the stick; provide some value from registering and you might get more people that do it, which is kind of the point of the scheme is it not? Various suggestions to that effect were made by be on the CAA's feedback form at the weekend...

 

[bushie]

I live in Australia, wherd we are also going to have a registration system. I have a daughter who lives in the UK znd visit her most years. Usually stay for a month or so.

If i take my UAV i presume i will need to pay up and jump through the hoops

 

[zocalo]

If i take my UAV i presume i will need to pay up and jump through the hoops

There's no specific mention of tourists bringing drones into the UK I've seen, but I'd assume they have at least some idea on what they intend to do on this once they've figured out how to treat us locals (and how much extra cash they need to bring in to cover their costs).

There has been some discussion about reciprocal recognition of other nation's registation schemes in the text put out by the CAA relating to the on-going registation, so it may be that if you bring your Aussie paperwork that'll be enough, or there will be a small bit of web-based paperwork required (and "handling fee", naturally) for tourists. Fat chance with enforcing that since bags are not typically searched on entry to the UK unless you get unlucky passing through the "nothing to declare" aisle of customs, but whatever. Depending on how it pans out, it may be easier (and possibly cheaper if the price is adjusted) just to register your drone in the UK as if it was your daughter's and with you as the pilot since they intend treat owners/operators and pilots as separate entitites.

All will hopefully become clearer by July, and it's not going to be required until November anyway.

 

[FoxhallGH]

There seems to be a justification based on a huge £1Million+ p.a. cost to host and operate a basic on-line database for 170,000 users. That database could be held on a medium sized USB memory stick for goodness sake! The question here is 'who has conned the CAA into believing that this registration process needs an IT server farm like you'd want for a mission to Mars!?'
While the £16.50 may not seem like much, there are precedents being set here that I think we need to be aware of:
1) There are several 'Human Rights' issues being violated e.g. Universal Declaration of Human rights ... "Article 20: We should all have the right to form groups and organise peaceful meetings. Nobody should be forced to belong to a group if they don’t want to. " Articles 22, 24, 27 and 30 can also be referenced in this situation ... What is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
2) Drone operators / pilots are not the party here that is 'asking' for this registration - it is being imposed - yet - it is us that are termed the 'Users' in this 'User Pays' scheme. What about the Airport Authorities, Prisons, Airline Pilots Association etc. who have been lobbying for this 'Tax' ... Don't they have some responsibility to bear the cost??
3) There are lists of comparable annual registrations, and this would be one of the most expensive ... I believe that the only annuall registration fee exceeding it is a TV license. After all - it only costs £9 p.a. to keep a shotgun!
4) As an IT professional, I believe that the costs that the CAA are trying to justify to set up and maintain a website and database are ludicrous! I'd expect Amazon to be spending that sort of money on their e-commerce IT, but a small database with on-line access and a QA 'qualify' section - is pretty much off-the-shelf now ...
5) How many license numbers are we going to need ... Operators pay and have a reg' number, Pilots don't pay but have a reg' number - and owners/operators that fly have a reg' number.

It looks like it might be time to set up a UK Drone owners club that we all pay £1 p.a. to to 'lease' our drones from that club as the Operator (as an operator can pay £16.50 operate as many drones as he/she wants under that single reg' number), and just sit the free Pilot's reg' exam ... The annual party would be loads of fun!

 

[zocalo]

There seems to be a justification based on a huge £1Million+ p.a. cost to host and operate a basic on-line database for 170,000 users. That database could be held on a medium sized USB memory stick for goodness sake! The question here is 'who has conned the CAA into believing that this registration process needs an IT server farm like you'd want for a mission to Mars!?'

Consultants. You just know they hired an external firm to put all this together for them, right? I suspect there was a lot of teeth sucking and muttering of phrases like "in the cloud" and "GDPR compliant" , then they just added a couple of zeros to the bill because buzzwords.

Seriously, given the governement has supposedly covered the initial setup costs, the CAA (and by implication, us pilots) are getting fleeced here when you realise that £1m/annum is just for the on-going DB administration, hosting, management, and other operational costs. $employer does much larger DBs with similar content and implications in the government/service sector for a fraction of that, and we're not exactly failing to make a profit on it either.

 

[FoxhallGH]

Consultants. You just know they hired an external firm to put all this together for them, right? I suspect there was a lot of teeth sucking and muttering of phrases like "in the cloud" and "GDPR compliant" , then they just added a couple of zeros to the bill because buzzwords.

Seriously, given the governement has supposedly covered the initial setup costs, the CAA (and by implication, us pilots) are getting fleeced here when you realise that £1m/annum is just for the on-going DB administration, hosting, management, and other operational costs. $employer does much larger DBs with similar content and implications in the government/service sector for a fraction of that, and we're not exactly failing to make a profit on it either.

100% agree ... The next question is what's to be done about it though? October / November is Autumn with windy and generally rubbish weather for flying ... I wonder what the CAA would do, if we all just moth-balled our drones in November, for a few months with the intent not to register until the summer when we get them out again ... Would that get them worried enough about the scheme? - or is that just cutting off your nose ...

 

[mbre]

Emigrate to Canada......starting June 1, it will be only $5 per drone (less than £3) and we have more space and less rain (perhaps a tad more snow in winter in some parts!)

 

[Dronage]

Yeah you could be right but that’s the same thing as everything else in our life’s. I’ll definitely be paying so I know I’m all legal and have nothing to worry about if I get approached from the men in blue?

.....Your Honour..gulp...

 

[John Kyte]

I think that $21.56 US per bird per year seems rather excessive to obtain a registration number. If the UK needs to outsource this I am more than willing to volunteer my services for only $20.00 US and they can keep the rest.

 

[Tom Watson]

£16.50 doesn't sound like a lot but once a licence is introduced what will we be paying in a few years time?

You can bet the cost will continually rise.

If it's anything to do with the UK, you know were going to get ripped off.

 

[zocalo]

I think that $21.56 US per bird per year seems rather excessive to obtain a registration number. If the UK needs to outsource this I am more than willing to volunteer my services for only $20.00 US and they can keep the rest.

To be clear, it's being proposed as per "operator", which is basically the person or entity responsible for the drone/RC aircraft, and need not be the same thing as the person who flies it (who also needs to be registered), if you are both operator and pilot you only need register (and pay) the once. An operator can own multiple drones under a single registration, and (presumably) each drone can have multiple pilots or many commercial endeavors are going to find this cumbersome to say the least.

Here's a link to the CAA's overview page which links to the full document (PDF) and feedback form, for anyone who wants the gory details and/or to express their views to the CAA.

 

[Soledamcer]

Yeah you could be right but that’s the same thing as everything else in our life’s. I’ll definitely be paying so I know I’m all legal and have nothing to worry about if I get approached from the men in blue?

You may believe you're legal, but can almost guarantee not all regs are being adhered to.

 

[GoGracefully]

What, no libertarian voices in the group?

It's one thing to over-regulate and another thing entirely to soak us for it. Here is an old image related to the US tax code from 2011. It never gets smaller and taxes only go down when you die.

 

[FoxhallGH]

To be clear, it's being proposed as per "operator", which is basically the person or entity responsible for the drone/RC aircraft, and need not be the same thing as the person who flies it (who also needs to be registered), if you are both operator and pilot you only need register (and pay) the once. An operator can own multiple drones under a single registration, and (presumably) each drone can have multiple pilots or many commercial endeavors are going to find this cumbersome to say the least.

Here's a link to the CAA's overview page which links to the full document (PDF) and feedback form, for anyone who wants the gory details and/or to express their views to the CAA.

Maybe there is an interesting way that we could create one 'company / organisation' that [on paper] owned [Operated] everybody's drones ... That way the company would pay one £16.50 'Operator' fee, and the 'members' would just need to pass [free of charge] their drone pilot registration. Any lawyers out these that see holes in that? Please comment ...