UK Department for Transport review of CAA
 

Not entirely sure where this best fits, but as the title says "items that may be of interest to professional pilots" then I'll put it here.

DFT has launched a consultation into the "effectiveness and efficiency" of the UK Civil Aviation Authority. The consultation is open to a wide range of parties including individuals and organisations licensed by the CAA - thus anyone from the holder of a pilot's licence through to a Licensed Aircraft Engineer can legitimately respond.

DFT consultation

Closing date of 23 January.

The CAA's website home page has a warning at the top of it admitting that a lot of the site's content is inaccurate, having become so following the UK's exit from the EU, and therefore the CAA's non-participation in EASA (European Union Aviation Safety Authority). I'd say that the CAA's relationship with EASA is an issue that ought to be up for consultation, but it isn't mentioned among the suggested areas that questions might probe.

There are three questions that provide an opportunity to probe the CAA's relationship with EASA and more importantly ICAO:

1 To what extent do you agree or disagree that the CAA has the appropriate technical capability to make sound regulatory decisions?

2 To what extent do you agree or disagree that the CAA is appropriately structured to fulfil its functions / organised to fulfil its functions and why?

3 To what extent do you agree or disagree that the CAA is able to anticipate future regulatory requirements for the sector and prepare new regulatory frameworks in a timely fashion and why?

There have been a number of comments on PPrune over recent years relating to changes at the CAA and whether they are technically competent and adequately equipped to carry out their statutory duties. Not withstanding Brexit, both CAA and EASA regulations have to implement the ICAO SARPS therefore they should not be significantly divergent in any way. These questions provide the opportunity to comment fully on these relationships.

I just completed the survey...I think it's very important for us to raise some questions regarding the UK CAA and EASAs relationship

“The call for evidence will not consider the CAA’s safety and airspace regulation approach”.

So given that’s the CAA’s prime role, is there any point to this?

I have numerous issues with the CAA, but even this call for evidence isn’t being open.