The DfT have missed the point it would seem. The majority of N reg pilots/owners (not talking about the likes of British Gas and big corporations that have their Corporate machinery on the American/Cayman/Bermudan registrations in the UK) have the aircraft on a foreign register, for License purposes (i.e the FAA IR).
Being a bunch of "Good ol' chaps" at the CAA, they decided to make the IR almost unattainable to the average Joe Bloggs PPL in the UK. I can see some reasoning behind this, like avoiding having a load of Warrior pilots filing and flying airways within the UK (we simply don't have the room), so what they did was give us the IMC rating...useless if you want to use it outside the UK FIR in IMC...DOH....OR in airways...you just can't do it.
IF "they" do ban foreign reg aircraft here...what will they do with the aircraft that aren't available on the UK reg? What will they do for all the pilots that only maintain their foreign licenses? And they even mention "The addition of a rating to a licence would cost £100"... well okay then...here's your 100 quid...now give me my JAA ATPL!! Yeah right!
The document should, and I hope, will, be torn to shreds, filled paragraphs starting with "It is not uncommon..." and "It is assumed..." and "It appears..." etc etc. They clearly don't know what they are talking about.
There is NO SAFETY BENEFIT to be had at all.
Has capitilism suddenly worked it's way into the DfT...it looks like it... as the ONLY PEOPLE TO BENEFIT WILL BE THE CAA/DfT as their revenue will go up...and that makes me feel incredibly sick!!!