Like all things the CAA has some good points and some bad ,iv found the engineering section very good over the years both for aircraft tech problems and ground engineer licencing.
The medical people are a lot more practical than the JAA and recently have dumped some of the JAA tests on the grounds that the tests had no flight safety implications.
Flight crew licencing is a national discrace the level of service and the charges are at the opposite ends of what one would expect from a public body
I have had exam results lossed ,money not returned and was sent another guys log book and licence !.
To top this off i now hear that ground engineer licencing has been taken over by this bunch of half witts.
I think that if i did my job as well as the head of FCL i would have been fired long ago and it is my opinion that its time that the upper management of FCL had some time on the dole.