Draft Unmanned Aircraft (amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020

Mike Kane Excerpts

Wednesday 9th December 2020 General Committees

[Mike Kane (Wythenshawe and Sale East) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Rosindell. I would like to place on the record my thanks for your chairmanship of the Chagos Islands (British Indian Ocean Territory) all-party parliamentary group. As you know, I have a significant community in my aviation constituency who work at Manchester airport, and it has been a great pleasure to work with you on that issue over the years.

I can see that Members across the room are absolutely riveted by this delegated legislation. Thank God we are doing the Prime Minister’s work for him today and this is not part of the subject of the negotiation tonight in Brussels with Ursula von der Leyen. We can praise the Lord for that, I am sure.

As the Minister says, these regulations keep the effect of the policy framework established by the EU implementing and delegated regulations. They ensure that certain provisions relating to unmanned aircraft will be retained in UK law and will continue to apply after the end of the transition period, in just three weeks’ time.

The regulations enable the Secretary of State to designate standards after the end of the transition period. In the meantime, unmanned aircraft that conform to current standards will be considered compliant with the EU requirements recognised by the UK. The main immediate consequence of these regulations is that, as we will no longer be part of the EU or the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, the European Union standards CE marking will be replaced by an official UKCA marking, recognised in the UK. The same product standards as currently apply will be maintained. As a result, unmanned aircraft that lawfully bear the CE marking can continue to be put on the UK market. The regulations set out a transitional period to 1 January 2023, during which unmarked CE or UK unmanned aircraft will continue to be placed on the market.

I genuinely believe that the long-term prospects for drones in the UK are particularly exciting and hope to work with the Minister in this post over the years to come. Future drones could be deployed in search and rescue—I had the great pleasure of talking to Airbus about this just the other week—as part of the next phase of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency’s search and rescue provision. I am sure the Minister shares my enthusiasm about implementing this technological boon in the UK’s search and rescue capabilities in our remote mountain regions and the seas around our great islands.

Do the Government have any view on whether the designated standards from the end of the transitional period will vary to a significant degree, and if so, in what way will they vary from the current standards under the implementing regulation? Has the Minister considered what effect this divergent system may have on the development of drone technology in the UK as compared with the EU?

I welcome these regulations. The opportunities for unmanned aircraft are enormous. I was pleased to see Baroness Vere confirm that the purpose of the Government’s framework is to provide certainty so that the UK can capture these future opportunities. I hope it will also provide flexibility and allow future innovation while maintaining our exemplary safety standards.