Draft Aviation Safety (Amendment) Regulations 2025

The Committee consisted of the following Members:

Chair: Clive Efford

† Barron, Lee (Corby and East Northamptonshire) (Lab)

† Bishop, Matt (Forest of Dean) (Lab)

† Cooper, John (Dumfries and Galloway) (Con)

Farron, Tim (Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)

† German, Gill (Clwyd North) (Lab)

† Kohler, Mr Paul (Wimbledon) (LD)

† Kumar, Sonia (Dudley) (Lab)

† Lamb, Peter (Crawley) (Lab)

† Lavery, Ian (Blyth and Ashington) (Lab)

† Mather, Keir (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport)

† Minns, Ms Julie (Carlisle) (Lab)

† Rankin, Jack (Windsor) (Con)

† Smith, Greg (Mid Buckinghamshire) (Con)

† Smith, Sarah (Hyndburn) (Lab)

† Snowden, Mr Andrew (Fylde) (Con)

† Walker, Imogen (Hamilton and Clyde Valley) (Lab)

† Witherden, Steve (Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr) (Lab)

William Opposs, Committee Clerk

† attended the Committee

Second Delegated Legislation Committee

[Clive Efford in the Chair]

Draft Aviation Safety (Amendment) Regulations 2025

I beg to move,

That the Committee has considered the draft Aviation Safety (Amendment) Regulations 2025.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Efford, and to discuss the draft regulations, which were laid before the House on 16 July—my first statutory instrument in my new role. I look forward to many exchanges with the hon. Members for Mid Buckinghamshire and for Wimbledon in rooms like this. Let us hope that they are all on as sunny a morning as this one.

UK airspace and airlines are among the safest in the world. Even with that success, we are not complacent: the Government are committed to maintaining and improving the high safety standards in aviation. The UK is committed to ensuring that technical requirements remain up to date and in line with international standards and best practice. The Civil Aviation Authority is responsible for developing and advising the Government on amendments to the technical requirements and regulations.

This statutory instrument has four objectives, three of which relate to the continuing airworthiness regulation, which ensures that the maintenance and repair of aircraft is conducted safely. First, the instrument will make amendments to the continuing airworthiness regulation regarding the release of aircraft parts into service. Currently, for all components added to an aircraft, the maintenance organisation is required to issue a form 1, which certifies that the parts are safe to be released to service—a long and technically complex process. The instrument will allow approved design organisations to release components for service by making a less onerous declaration of maintenance; this declaration can be used only for parts that have a negligible impact on the safety of the aircraft, such as a pilot’s document holder. These amendments will complete the introduction of a policy that was introduced by the Aviation Safety (Amendment) Regulations 2023 to the initial airworthiness regulation, and will help to reduce the burden on maintenance organisations.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Efford. As this is my first exchange as shadow Minister with the new Minister, I warmly welcome him to his place. It seems only five minutes ago that he arrived after his by-election; it is a credit to him that he is a Minister. Thankfully, I dare say that this morning’s exchange will be a softer landing than some of the exchanges in the weeks and months ahead, at least politically speaking.

Aviation safety is a story of constant evolution. Over the past 50 years, we have seen great strides in the safety of our aircraft, which has contributed to the growth in flying from which so many people across the country benefit. According to figures from the Aviation Safety Network, in the 1970s there were about six fatal airliner accidents for every 1 million commercial flights, which meant, sadly, that one in every 165,000 flights ended in a fatal accident. By contrast, data from 2024 shows that the figures have dropped to approximately half a fatal accident per 1 million flights. Although there will always be some variation, and there are devastating news stories that highlight the tragic consequences when accidents do occur, the long-term trend has clearly been positive.

The Conservatives will always welcome measures that provide greater clarity to our safety regime and improve on the existing system. The regulations set out by the Government today suggest relatively small changes. On a positive note, I particularly welcome it that the explanatory memorandum highlights sensible deregulation, for example allowing the installation of particular components without the need for a form 1, provided that they are declared safe by the design organisation. Furthermore, enabling the CAA to delegate aviation safety tasks appears to be a sensible step. For clarity, however, can the Minister outline which tasks he understands that the CAA may delegate? Is he confident in the CAA’s capacity to manage this delegation effectively, given that it has not had these powers for a period of time?

I thank the shadow Minister for his constructive tone in engaging with me on the important issue of aviation safety. He asked how the CAA will put the powers to use. It intends to use them to delegate to qualified third parties the training and examination of drone pilots, as well as the assessments of drones’ flightworthiness. As the shadow Minister alluded to, that is incredibly important for growth opportunities and innovation in the UK aviation sector. It is important to have such a delegated power to accredited third parties with the expertise necessary to undertake the work.

The shadow Minister asked whether we are confident in the CAA’s ability to delegate these powers effectively. We are. The CAA has a strict accreditation regime when it delegates these powers. We will be working very closely with it as it implements the draft regulations.

Lastly, the shadow Minister asked me to comment on the powers gap that emerges from changes made as a result of the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act. We will still have the power to make statutory instruments that relate to these measures, under both the affirmative and negative procedure, until the middle of next year, when that will change. We are exploring options to make regulations that are clearer and easier to follow; I can update the shadow Minister on that in due course. The CAA retains the right to use emergency regulation if it thinks that there is a pressing need to do so. I hope the shadow Minister feels that I have answered his questions, but if he requires any further information, I will be happy to respond in writing.

I thank Committee members for their consideration. The safety of aviation and travel in public remains an absolute priority for this Government. The Department for Transport is committed to ensuring that aviation remains safe. The draft regulations represent a further step in doing so.