I read through this stuff, and 'bee in the bonnet' seems about right, to me. They say they haven't a clue how many a/c there are operating in the UK on foreign reggies, which amazes me. Perhpas they should go to Stansted and count the 'EI' a/c there, or the TF elsewhere...
Surely the benchmark is safety. If, say, 20% of light a/c & bizjets were foreign registered (which I think is what they're suggesting) and there was a safety issue, then more than 20% of the UK-based aircraft in the AAIB reports every month would have foreign registrations. There ARE plenty of reports involving foreign-reg a/c but they are mainly visitors - B777 at Manchester with brake problems etc. You don't see too many Cayman Island reg G4 or N-reg Seneca III in the reports, or do you?
I guess the nub of the argument is that they feel they haven't any control over the activity. They should instead look at the reasons why people choose not to put a/c on the UK register. They cite the cost of a PPL and added ratings as £149 and £100 respectively. They do admit there are additional costs involved in obtaining these ratings. What they don't say is that the cost is many thousands of pounds. For porfessional licences, the differences are even larger.
If the DfT think that their subsidiary, the CAA, are losing revenue by people looking to the cheaper and more effective alternative of working on the N- or VP registers, then they perhaps should look at how they can drive down their own costs so that they can make the G- register just as attractive. Only then, I believe, do they have the right to require UK-based a/c to be on the G- register...
Cheers,
The Odd One