Originally Posted by
777JRM
Further, the CAA was independent once before; if they pull their finger out, they can be so again!
Yes, all the CAA needs to do is to have started the transition process about 10 years ago ...
If continued UK membership of EASA cannot be agreed, the UK could empower the UK CAA to discharge all the UK’s ICAO responsibilities. This would require the UK CAA to rebuild its competence in the many areas of an NAA’s remit which are currently delegated to EASA. Given the large number [around 300] of additional specialist staff needed, and the new systems and processes that would need to be put in place and used by industry, this could not be achieved by March 2019. Most of the specialists who carried out these tasks in the CAA prior to EASA taking them over have gone to EASA, taken on other work at the CAA, or retired. Based on the UK’s experience of transference of regulatory responsibility to the European level back in 2002, there is no evidence to suggest that a ‘reverse transfer’ back to the UK would be less challenging.
Under this scenario, a multi-year transition would be needed, during which activities would gradually move under the CAA’s direction. If suitable transition measures were not put in place there would be disruption of services following Brexit, increased costs to business, and almost certainly loss of business to UK companies. The reasons for this have been covered in the section on how the system works today with EASA above. Indeed, if this scenario appears likely during 2018 it is likely that the uncertainty will already cause UK industry to lose business. Businesses which have operations in multiple countries might decide to move some activities out of the UK and other businesses might move out of the UK. Clearly this would not be an option in every case. In any event, such moves would not be beneficial to the UK economy.
A transition period with high levels of change is not good for product safety assurance, as it takes the focus away from assuring every task is done correctly and from continuous improvement requiring additional work that does not add to safety. This situation would be worse if the transition period was badly managed, or indeed if there was an attempt to manage with no transition period and all the competent resources and system were not in place at Brexit.
Civil Aviation Regulation: What Future after Brexit?