The CAA published CAP3035, its 2023 Annual Safety Review on 19 Sep 2024. Of course, the key piece of information is about incidents for aviation as a whole, including for RPAS. But what attracted our attention first was the updated numbers on the drone community, including the number of Operational Authorisation holders, representing the Specific category in the UK.

As of 30th June 2024, there are 601,980 active registered drone flyers and operators (a 17.1% increase on 2023) which consists of:
# 236,709 Active Operators: of which 7,569 are Organisations and 229,140 are Individuals
# 365,271 Active Flyers: of which 7,441 are under 13 and 357,830 are aged 13+

The CAA also has current authorisations for:
# Approximately 18,500 Active Remote Pilot Competency Qualification Holders
# 2947 Active Specific Category Operational Authorisation Holders (as of 19 Sep 2024)
# 26 Active Recognised Assessment Entities
# 4 Independent Flying Associations.

Checking odd data – Operational Authorisation holders

Upon reviewing the recently published CAP3035, ARPAS-UK noticed an inconsistency in the figure of Operational Authorisation holders, which appeared at odds with data from previous years. It was so low that it was either really bad news or an error. We promptly raised the issue with the CAA, they confirmed the error within 30 minutes and have since corrected the document.