The Department for Transport announced the publication of the CAA’s performance review. If you remember, the consultation was open to the public and we invited you to respond. Also, ARPAS-UK responded and took part in workshops alongside General Aviation.

To read the announcement by Baroness VERE, Minister for Aviation, click HERE.

Yet, behind the headline, the summary of stakeholders feedback paints an interesting picture of stakeholders’ feedback.

In particular, 62% of RPAS operators responded they disagreed or strongly disagreed that the CAA was efficient and effective. And all things considered, a good number of drone operators responded to the consultation.

Beyond the RPAS community, respondents overall disagreed that the CAA seeks feedback, engages regularly with those regulated and stakeholders, or fosters innovation and growth.

Our response was along the same lines, with key messages as follows:

• “In this context of high growth and unprecedented innovation, the CAA is dramatically under-resourced for the current manual workflows for RPAS. Although there are highly skilled individuals in the team who  are very well-intentioned and willing to help, there are not enough of them. Retention also appears to be an issue.
• As a result, we have to disagree that the CAA has the right capacity and capabilities to fulfil its focus area, to consistently perform oversight, to make regulatory decisions in an efficient manner, nor to be able to prepare new regulatory framework in a timely manner,  nor to support technological innovation.”

To review the full summary of stakeholders feedback, click HERE. Highlights of the summary feedback below:

What respondents said about CAA’s performance

Overall, organisations often responded neutrally to the call for evidence, with 29% of their responses being ‘neither agree nor disagree’. Other responses were, 26% were disagree, 20% were strongly disagree, 22% were agree, and 3% were strongly agree.

Remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) operator organisations responded the most negatively, with 62% of their responses being disagree or strongly disagree. Organisations regulated by the CAA for consumer protection responded the most positively to the survey, with almost 58% of their responses being agree or strongly agree.

Responses to questions on feedback

The call for evidence asked respondents a range of questions about how they were able to give feedback to the CAA and how they thought it was used. These questions received some of the most negative responses. In particular:

• question 30.1 – 69% of respondents disagreed or strongly disagreed that the CAA seeks feedback to improve its performance
• question 30.2 –72% of respondents disagreed or strongly disagreed that the CAA seeks feedback to improve its customer service
• question 33 –73% of respondents disagreed or strongly disagreed that the CAA acts upon customer feedback

Individuals (77%) were considerably more negative than organisations (55%) in this area.

Responses to questions on engagement

Overall, respondents tended to respond negatively on the theme of engagement. The most negative responses were to the CAA’s engagement with those regulated, where 66% strongly disagreed or disagreed (question 29.5) and stakeholders, where 63% strongly disagreed or disagreed (question 29.1).

Responses to questions on growth and innovation

Just under three-quarters of individuals and around 60% of organisations responded negatively to question 24. The GA community responding as individuals – including pilots (commercial and private) and professional drone operators – were particularly strongly negative. There were more mixed views across different types of organisations. Remote pilot aviation system operators were the most negative and airlines and some representative bodies giving positive responses.

Overview of individuals and organisations who responded to the call for evidence