Asked by: Lord Rana (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what additional resources they intend to provide to the Civil Aviation Authority to manage recent increases in pilot licence applications.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is making flexible use of internal resources and additional fixed-term contractor staff, to help manage the short-term increase in applications. This has increased the available resource by 35%, and the CAA consequently expect to have returned to its target turnaround time of ten working days by the end of June. The CAA is also actively recruiting additional permanent staff to improve resilience over the medium to long term.
Asked by: Lord Rana (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the liability of airshow organisers for harm that occurs as a result of members of the public deliberately putting themselves at risk.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) regulates civil flying displays and publishes requirements and guidance on the organisation, administration and participation of flying displays. Protecting the public is of paramount importance and as such any participant or organiser of a flying display is responsible for carrying out their tasks with the utmost professionalism and to the highest standards.
The assessment of liability for any potential harm that may arise for members of the public who deliberately put themselves at risk at civil flying display events is the sole responsibility of the organisers themselves.
Asked by: Lord Rana (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to reclassify existing areas of unnecessarily controlled airspace to improve safety, efficiency and access to airspace for general aviation traffic.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
The Government is working with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and other key stakeholders to modernise our airspace. The specific needs of general aviation, including whether existing areas of controlled airspace should be reclassified, will be considered by the independent airspace regulator, the CAA, which is responsible for the classification of UK airspace.
Last year, the Secretary of State for Transport commissioned NATS to produce a feasibility assessment of the potential future demands for airspace of airports in the South of the UK. This work was the first step in the co-ordination of airspace modernisation, examining its feasibility and potential implementation. It was a design requirement of the NATS modelling that the total volume of controlled airspace does not increase and that where possible, controlled airspace would be released to other airspace users, including general aviation. The Government expects to publish the high level findings of this later in 2018.