Reviews |Proposed UK legislation would charge drone owners annual fee

Proposed UK legislation would charge drone owners annual fee

DJI Spark review
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All drone owners in the UK could face an annual fee of £16.50 under proposed legislation by the Civil Aviation Authority.

The CAA is currently consulting on a move that would introduce a licence fee for all drone, as well as model aircraft, owners. The fee would be levied in order to cover the costs of running a new drone registration scheme.

If the proposals get the go ahead, every drone owner from November would be required to register his or her details on a government database and complete a safety test.

The CAA proposal would affect anyone owning a drone that weighs more than 250g, and it would also limit official drone owners to age 18 or older.

The CAA says that an official drone owner would be able to register multiple drones.

As the BBC reports, there are similar schemes in France and the United States; however, the French system is free and the US scheme costs just $5.

The public consultation on the new drone proposals closes on 7 June. You can read more about the proposed legislation on the CAA website.