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Written question asked by Grahame Morris (Labour) on Thursday, 3 September 2020, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 8 September 2020 (named day). It was answered by Andrew Stephenson (Conservative) on Tuesday, 8 September 2020 on behalf of the Department for Transport.

Aircraft: Registration

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to discourage UK-based aircraft from using foreign registration systems with less onerous regulatory requirements.

Answer

The majority of third country registered aircraft based in Europe are non-complex aircraft registered in the US, used for recreational aviation. The Department for Transport recently commissioned an independent review into the safety of recreational General Aviation. Both the review and evidence from the CAA show there is no evidence that overall non-UK registered aircraft are maintained to a lower standard than UK registered aircraft, and that overall non-UK and European registered aircraft do not have a higher accident rate. Introducing restrictions could unnecessarily impact aircraft registered in Europe that are operated and maintained to the same standards as those in the UK.

For these reasons, the Department for Transport does not consider there to be a safety case to proactively discourage UK-based aircraft from being registered to third countries. Further, changes made at European level, which the UK has adopted, have removed some of the incentives for registering an aircraft with a third country. We are closely following proposals by the European Aviation Safety Agency on this topic, and will consider whether a parallel approach would be appropriate for the UK post-Transition Period.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
84690
Session
2019-21
Subjects
Aircraft Registration
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk