Civilian Use of Drones (EUC Report)

Lord Balfe Excerpts

Tuesday 8th September 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Balfe (Con)]

My Lords, first, I declare an interest, which is listed in the register, as an adviser to the British Airline Pilots Association. Secondly, I add my congratulations to the committee on producing such an excellent report, to which, I am pleased to note, BALPA contributed both written and oral evidence.

There have been a number of safety incidents involving drones—I will call them drones, rather than remotely piloted aircraft systems—but they are all very recent because, as the noble Lord, Lord Giddens, said, there has been an explosion in the technology. Indeed, the first prosecution was as recent as 2013, when a man from Cumbria became the first person to be successfully prosecuted for the dangerous and illegal flying of an unmanned aircraft after flying a quadcopter over a nuclear submarine facility, then over a bridge and then crashing it into the water, for which he was fined some £800.

I know we want the maximum attention to be paid to safety. But, as this is such a rapidly developing sector, I think we will have to have a good degree of flexibility in the regulations. Whatever regulations are adopted, they have to be flexible enough to be adapted and, of course, have to be at a European level. It is when I look at a report such as this that I privately think how ridiculous the whole notion of not being part of the European Union is. This is yet another example of where we need European regulation.

It is my belief that every operator flying small drones for commercial purposes should be licensed, appropriately trained and fully insured in respect of any injury to people or property. This seems a sensible basis. However, the noble Viscount, Lord Astor, gave us a very good example of how to buy a drone. I wonder whether one should be able to buy a drone quite that simply. They need at least to be adequately insured. I am struck by the fact that I am advised by my insurance company to take out public liability insurance—I believe it is for £1 million—in case the postman trips on my front step and I could be sued for having a dangerous premises. In those circumstances, it seems bizarre that one can be in charge of a drone without training or insurance, and that in the case of an accident a person could be left without recourse to compensation. I therefore say to the Minister that I have no solution but I have a problem that needs to be carefully looked at in the context of the regulations that are drawn up.

The noble Earl, Lord Liverpool, referred to the need for particular vigilance when drones are flown in airspace used by other passenger, freight or light aircraft. There was an incident last July when a drone was flown within 20 feet of an A320 aircraft landing at Heathrow. It is clear that there is a need for some regulation. Geo-fencing should certainly be considered in certain areas and areas around airports would be an obvious place to do it. I would also suggest that only a trained pilot be allowed to fly a drone in airspace in close proximity to airports.

Another danger that has been alluded to is that of a collision between a drone and a helicopter. A helicopter is a much more vulnerable aircraft carrying people than an aeroplane and the environment in which they work could increase that vulnerability. For example, a helicopter emergency medical service flight will often attend a high-profile incident where there is likely to be competition for airspace between the helicopter and news-gathering drones. There may not be at the moment, but we should look at the speed at which technology has developed. I could easily see it being possible that a report of an accident would come in and a local news station could have a drone on the scene as quickly as the helicopter service. In such circumstances, there must be a code of practice, but the civil law authorities must be given authority to take urgent action on the spot either to ban or regulate the drones or to move them out of the area in the interests of safety.

The report calls for the development of a robust system to track and trace all leisure and commercial drones, including identifying their owners, and proposes in the mean time an online database for commercial users to log their flight patterns and to inform others using the airspace. Pilots are concerned that, unless commercial drone users are required to enter their details, the take-up and use of the database is unlikely to be sufficient to provide any full safety benefit. I urge the Minister to look at that.

As the pilots’ union, BALPA believes that use of the database should be mandatory, but it is also considering opening up its membership to professional drone operators so that they can have the benefit of belonging to what is not only a trade union but a body deeply concerned with safety that would be able to involve them in the development of safety regulations and publicise them.

I have mentioned that this is an international issue and I welcome the attention that is paid to it in the report. I hope that the Minister will be able to assure us that UK and EU flight safety regulators will be at work to make the maximum protection available to the public, because, as the noble Lord, Lord Giddens, said, there will be large development in this area. I think that we are looking at only the beginning of it. Given the way in which GPS technology has developed, it will probably develop astronomically. A robust European and UK approach is needed. We need to identify the people who are flying the drones, otherwise there can be no public protection for anyone who may be affected. Having said that, I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. I thank the committee for its report and I look forward to the Minister’s response.